


Enjoying the Snyde Comments

by CTWatson



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Genre: F/M, Gen, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2020-10-01 19:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 41,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20381395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CTWatson/pseuds/CTWatson
Summary: We're starting in the 3rd Year of Hogwarts Mysteries with a Slytherin Male MC.This novelization of the game ideally will steer towards MC/Merula getting together thanks to the side quests that show up through the game.This MC is no hero, just very competitive and willing to act like a Slytherin to find the next vault.Year 4 starts in Chapter 8. Celestial Ball side quest begins in Chapter 9.If you want to skip 40k words of build-up things heat up starting in Chapter 18, I won't take it personal, lol.





	1. Year 3 Begins

I’m not completely sure I’m ready for another year already after breaking the first vault and saving everyone’s sorry behind from that cursed ice. School’s always better than trying to get dad to notice me at home though, so that’s good enough for me to toss my bags onto a trolley and wave at mom before she leaves King’s Cross.

Rowan catches me all of five seconds after I appear past the barrier, of course. I appreciate the walking encyclopedia more than I get annoyed by his questions. Honestly I like the guy, we all have our quirks. “Hey Marik! Good summer I hope?”

“Same old boring life at home.” _ Lies _. “What about you?” I know getting him to talk will avoid me giving the rundown on empty halls and hopes of seeing Jacob again. Rowan never misses an opportunity to talk my ears off.

“I came up with a list of eighty-two things we can do to protect ourselves from danger and Merula this year.”

Now he had my attention. “Anything we can launch to get her good early?”

“I read our list of classes this year and we will have Herbology. I know I heard Mandrakes before walking by the greenhouse. Their scream can knock you out if they are young enough.”

“Young enough?”

“A mature mandrake scream will kill you. We lost a Minister of Magic once that way. Students have to wear earmuffs during class.”

I’m zero percent surprised he knows that. “Sounds like an accidental bump to knock those off. I’ll make a note for later.” 

Rowan squeezed his books tighter, “Are you sure we should be provoking Merula of all people? With all the things she’s threatened to do to us?”

Holding Rowan’s shoulder to keep him steady, “After the Devil’s Snare and stealing from Snape to get me in trouble I’m not going into another year unprepared.” I skim the railcars looking for any sign of the witch and spot her way up near the front. “How early do you need to get here to be up at the front?”

“Ben said he was going to the back to be as far away from her as possible. He said she was with two new friends this year and one was ‘ultra creepy,’ as he put it.”

“Sounds like her lot.”

As much as I wanted to draw first blood, that chance was taken from me when a brawny bloke flung open their compartment door and Merula’s voice commanded, “Jinx them, Ismelda!”

“_Petrificus totalis _!” 

Before I knew it I was sliding off the seat, legs still bent. Rowan fell face first onto my shoe and I could only imagine Ben’s face after listening to the howling laughter of Merula and her cronies.

The door slammed shut as quick as it opened and their voices trailed down the hallway. Meanwhile I was getting a detailed look at how messy the underside of our benches were. Nothing moved but my eyes and every second felt like a minute waiting for the jinx’s effects to wear off. Ismelda must have practiced a lot to have it last so long.

Our three bodies rolled up against the front of the compartment as the train stopped. Now we had to hope for anyone to come check on us before leaving back to King’s Cross.

Another ten minutes, at least, passed. Finally the door slid open, “Marik! Rowan!” Penny’s high voice almost brought a smile to my face...except for the whole petrified thing.

“I got this.” Another witch said and a second later my legs kicked out right into Ben’s still petrified body. 

An unusually pink haired witch finished the counter-spell on Rowan and Ben and stuck out her hand, “Name’s Tonks. Nothing else.”

“Cool name. Thank you both for finding us. Why are you still on the train?”

Penny lifted Rowan by his sleeve and explained, “Merula’s boy friend was laughing about cursing the curse-breaker and some nonsense on that was funny.” 

“She has a boyfriend?”

“Guy who is a friend, that’s a thing you know.”

I had to chuckle, “I know, I was just thinking what unforgivable curse would need to be done to get someone to get anybody to date her.”

“_Imperio _.” Rowan states quickly. “It allows you to control-”

“I was being sarcastic!” I catch Ben still on the ground. “Come on, buddy, let’s get you cleaned up.” What a lame Gryffindor. I swear he needs to come out of his shell and do something super this year or I’m going to get tired of waiting for him to show off his courage. I’ve read enough books at home to know any coward sorted into Gryffindor always gets a big hero moment and Ben is running out the clock. “Alight, enough lying around. Let’s grab some food!” A snort escaped Tonks before she covered her face. I like this girl.

* * *

We made it into the Great Hall just as the Sorting hat was singing. Merula locked eyes with me and her jaw tightened. The student across from her jumped as if they received a kick in the legs meant for me. Rowan and I had to walk past all the other Slytherins towards the front where the new first years would be seated. 

I yanked on Merula’s hood as we passed. Her hands slamming the table echoed across the silent hall earning the eyes of all the professors. That was a good start to the payback. 

“Can we make it through a day without setting her off?” Rowan pleaded as we sat and watched the new recruits be sorted.

“I’m not going to take what she did to us lying down.” I admit the first joke was better. “I’ve been wanting to do some magic again and I think some rolls in her hood is a good way to start.”

“How are you?” I saw Rowan’s eyes dart around as he replayed my action pulling open her hood so there was room for us to levitate some food in. “Ah, I see.”

“Best case scenario she finds them in the common room and we catch them as she throws them back at us and we have a snack before bed.”

“Worst case?”

“I haven’t lost a duel yet.”

“I don’t want to sound like Ben, but-

“Then don’t.” Seriously Rowan should have been a Ravenclaw. His “ambition and resourcefulness” were helpful with finding the right spells and information on the vaults, but he never really rang as a cunning person. Probably why the hat took twice as long for him than for me.

I hold my wand in my left hand behind my back and a glazed cinnamon roll in my right. “_ Wingardium leviosa _.” I whisper and release the roll. Out of the corner of my eye I watch the roll bob up and down at bench level until it is near Merula. Levitating an object behind my back is tough and the roll shakes around inches from half a dozen students for a moment. I tense as the roll finally edges up and brushes the lip of her hood, “Almost there…”

The roll recoils back to me and flashes past my head. I whip around and Felix, our prefect, is staring straight at me. I read his cold lips to meet after dinner. 

_ So much for a good start. _

* * *

The next day in Herbology class, Rowan and I take detailed notes on our mandrake lesson so we can find a way to sneak one out and prank Merula. I say “Rowan and I,” but that really means he is writing the notes furiously as Professor Sprout talks and I handle the plants. We each have our strengths. 

Merula doesn’t look like she opted to take the class, but her muscle from last night is having the time of his life talking to the little mandrakes and carefully filling and watering their pots. Something doesn’t feel right, he’s too into this lesson. I keep one eye on him as we fertilize the mandrakes and start to re-pot the last batch.

Penny volunteered to grab some more pots off the shelf. “Werewolf!” Screams from all over the class erupted as a three meter tall beast steps toward Penny.

A piece of venison slapped across the werewolf’s face. Professor sprout hurled another piece out an open window, but the werewolf didn’t flinch or make a move except closer towards Penny. “_ Depulso _!” She boomed and white light shot from her wand straight through the creature with no effect. 

Tonks tackled a frozen Penny as Sprout tried again, “_ Riddikulus _!” and the werewolf lost all its fur and grew a santa hat and fake beard. Laughs from around the room caused the werewolf to burst in a puff of smoke and disappear.

“What was that?” Another Hufflepuff asked.

“That dears, was a boggart. One that had no business in this class.” Sprout’s face twisted in thought, “That’s enough for today. Finish your current station and leave the rest.” Sprout hustled students back and started looking into every nook and cranny in the greenhouse.

I spun towards the sound of a smashing pot and saw Merula’s friend on the floor with his earmuffs off next to a crying baby mandrake. 

“Keep your earmuffs on!” Rowan yelled at him for some reason. 

Merula and Ismelda came in through the front greenhouse door and scooped up their friend. _ Why did Merula have earmuffs on _? 

“Take him to Madam Pomfrey.” Sprout asked without seeing the two new students. “He’ll be back in a bit no worse for the wear.”

I pulled Rowan, Penny, and Tonks together outside after class, “Does anyone think it’s strange Merula and Ismelda were right there as soon as…Okay what’s his name?”

“Baranaby Lee. He’s our year, you don’t know him?”

“Haven’t had the pleasure to say ‘hi’ yet. Anyway, they had earmuffs on. They were ready to come inside. I think that was a distraction.”

Rowan shifted back and forth, “Do you think they had something to do with the boggart?” 

“I don’t know. I don’t see how they could get one into class like that.” I see Penny is still white after her encounter. “Penny, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about it.”

I’m going to have to follow up on that later. I know the “I’m fine” lie all too well. “We have to get to flying class soon. We should figure out what they are up to and see if that has something to do with another vault that Dumbledore warned us about.”

“We can talk at the Three Broomsticks.” Tonks suggested.

“Right. We can go to Hogsmeade now after class. I can research some more on Boggarts in the library and let you know what I find about them.”

“Sounds good. Welcome to the team, Tonks.”

* * *

I suspect Merula knows something about the boggarts she isn’t letting on about and I know she wants to start the year off proving she’s “the greatest witch” like her failed attempts our first and second year together. 

“What do you want loser?” She coldly asks as I present her with a broom.

“Let’s make a bet. If I can sprint through the rings around the training grounds faster than you, then you have to tell me what you know about those boggarts.”

“Why should I do that?”

“Because if you win, I’ll admit you're the best witch at Hogwarts.”

“I don’t need the validation from the cursed-boy. That’ll be like getting Ben to say I’m braver. It just sounds sad to have to be compared with you.”

“That’s not how the professors feel.” Merula’s eyes focused and seemed darker than usual.

“Give me that broom. I won’t lose to you.”

“That’s what I thought.” We mount the broomsticks in unison. “Three, two, one. Hey!” Merula’s boot slammed into my knee and she lifted into the air. I sprint low to the ground close behind and look up to see her directly above me. I flirt with the idea of knocking her off the broom, but I’m not a beater on any team.

Yelling into the wind, “You’re never going to be the best if you have to keep cheating!” 

“You look like an ant down there. Oh wait, you are.” Merula snapped back.

Ascending almost level with Merula she has me beat by just half a broom-length. I can’t try to go through the first ring next to her, definitely not big enough. I slow the broom for just a moment and grab the straw on the back of her broom. We move together through the first set of rings. I match her small turns as we move to the second length of the field. Once we hit a clearing I use my grip on her broom to launch myself just a bit forward and pull directly up next to her. Her gaze is as focused as ever. She doesn’t give me a second look. 

“Chicken?”

“I’m not afraid of you.” I say missing her true meaning. The next three rings in a row are within a hundred meters. Merula copies my move and places her hand on my handle to keep us together. “Oh this game?” I reach under her arm and hold her broom. 

Forty meters. Thirty. We slow just a little to adjust our position and continue closing in. Twenty meters. The ring is not wide enough for two brooms. Ten meters. Someone needs to let go. Five. This is going to hurt. “Duck!” Our brooms cross and pinched our legs together. Our heads collide to avoid the ring and I let go of her broom to save my thumb getting squished and lock elbows. We made it through the first and second ring. Not the third.

Technically her broom hit the ring first, then my feet second. Our bodies pointed straight down and we fell together into the sand pit below. I hit the ground first. She hit me. You can say I’m chivalrous like that even for Merula.

That kind of tomfoolery is precisely why we practice and never grab each other’s brooms.” Madam hooch inspected us both for injuries. “Ten points from Slytherin. For both of you. I trust this won’t happen again.”

“Yes ma’am.” I lied.

“Good, now I will see you both here for detention cleaning and mending brooms as punishment for your actions.” As if having Merula on top of me wasn’t dreadful enough.

Shouts of death eaters erupted from the class watching back by the castle. Madam Hooch zipped off on her broom and with a flick of her wand cast the “riddikulus” spell again.

“Twice in one day? Merula,” I looked over to the girl shaking the sand from her hair, “You’re not the one causing the boggarts around here?”

“No you idiot.” She stood and shook off her robes, “These will take forever to clean out. No, I’m not. It’s obviously got to do with the vaults. I have a few leads on where it is already and I intend to get that power.”

“What leads?”

“You didn’t win. And even if you did I wouldn’t tell you.” Merula always regained her confidence at a remarkable rate after being humiliated.

“You’re welcome for breaking your fall!” I call as she finds her friends.

“I would have preferred the sand or even a pit of vipers to you.”

_ Don’t say it, don’t say it sounds like a family reunion. Too low even for her. _ I shake out the sand from my shoes and rush back to Penny.

“I make no promises that everyone won’t be talking about what just happened.” 

She always knows what I’m about to ask. “That’s fair. I challenged her so I deserve it.” I think about our last class and look at the clock. We have some time before lunch. “Hey Penny, can we talk about what happened in Herbology?”

Her face loses all color again, “I’m not sure.”

“Not here. Let’s go inside and talk in the artefact room so it’s just us.”

Penny agrees and we leave for the west wing of the castle. Inside the artefact room Penny fidgets with her sleeves and seems more nervous than during end-of-semester exams. “I’m not sure I can talk about this.”

“What could be so bad that Penny Haywood, the most popular girl in our year, is afraid of? You saw a werewolf, that would scare anyone not expecting it. And probably most people who were.” I laugh to ease the tension. “I’ve known you for two years now. Something wasn’t right with that.”

“I know. I want to tell you but I can’t right now. I have a few things on my mind and...actually if you could help me with them I think I could come around to explaining it.”

“Deal.” Penny details her idea to brew another potion. If it’s anything like the strengthening one she used to rip open those frozen doors last year I’m all ears.


	2. Penny's Boggart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of how nothing happened with Penny...

Dumbledore dropped the hammer that another vault had been opened and boggarts were appearing around the school. The pressure as hundreds of eyes turning towards me very well be what my boggart will turn into, except it was happening right now. 

Rowan broke the silence, “I guess that means Merula isn’t behind it.”

“She didn’t send the boggart, but something is still out of place.”

“Barnaby doesn’t seem like the brightest fellow. We could try talking to him about it in the dormitories since Merula and Ismelda can’t come to the boy side.”

“That’s the kind of thinking I need from you. Send him a note to meet us later and we’ll see what he knows.”

Our plan didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped. Felix sent an owl to meet him in the common room after classes finished. I wasn’t sure which thing in the last two days this could be referencing.

Merula waiting by one of the couches confirmed the reason, we were going to get lambasted for losing points from Hooch.

Felix came in with a chalkboard under his arm and the rest of the Slytherin house. “You two have put us in last place already in the house cup and Hogwarts Express isn’t even back in London yet.” He hung the chalkboard over a nail on the wall and mumbled a few enchantments. With a couple whisks of his wand a scoreboard for Marik and Merula appeared. Holding his wand to his throat. “Ten points from Marik. Ten points from Merula.” Red numbers appeared under their names to reflect the points they had lost. “From here on out you two will be on notice. We lost over two hundred points last year because of you two alone. Yes I counted. If it weren’t for dumb luck and Dumbledore valuing results over caution we would have lost the house cup. That will not happen this year.” Felix stood between the two rivals. “Snape and I agree, the best way to get you both on your best behavior is to encourage this competition to earn more points. The witch or wizard with the most points at the end of the term will receive special advanced lessons and tutoring from myself and other seventh-years. The loser...well we can let you imagine what we can do to stay within the school rules but make your life miserable.”

Leave it to Slytherins to avoid conflict resolution and instead manipulate students to further their own interests. Another competition with Merula? Piece of cake. Outside of Snape all the other professors fancied me over her. I know how to put on a good facade and earn those house points.

* * *

I don’t know where to start with the next vault. Someone has opened it and she has a head start on me and won’t give up her information.

I gave up on pranking Merula for now. I wish it had worked both ways. Merula quickly decided it was easier to get me to lose points than to suck it up and earn a bunch herself. We were helping Hagrid on adopting a fairy out in the woods had asked us to gather creature food before potions. This gave Merula the perfect opportunity to reveal why she was nearby the greenhouse that first day. Someone had followed Rowan and I to the artefact room and balanced a pot above the door so that when we left to rush to potions... we were knocked out by a mandrake scream before we could get out of range down the hall. Snape took another ten points that day. It hurt more that Snape knew of our competition and gave Merula points for simple things like stirring the proper way for a potion. Merula even let on she was told the “actual way” to crush and mix some ingredients by Snape that weren’t in their textbooks. Someone was playing favorites. 

Each week Felix would read the tally results and made the current loser, me mostly, restock ingredients for Snape as punishment. It didn’t bother me too much. I was able to gather a few of those supplies Penny needed for her potion so we can get to the bottom of her werewolf boggart.

Little things helped me earn points back. Flitwick in particular gave me extra chances and had me tutoring students on spells from previous years when I finished early in class. It helped get a few points here or there, but it couldn’t keep up with Merula sabotaging me.

Potions became a greater nightmare than before. Barnaby, the dolt, got confused on what he was holding and drank a botched potion meant for me courtesy of Merula. Joke was on her. We had to work together and Snape awarded me points in front of her while delivering an extra-Snape stare at her for causing a disruption in class.

“How about we not poison each other?” I offered.

“Be careful with your dinner later.”

“You honestly could be getting top of the class if you paid less attention to me and more on your studies.”

“I am the best without even trying.”

“I don’t mind the snide comments.” Nailed it. “But some things are too far. Let’s not get into a Devil’s Snare situation again.” 

“I knew that idiot giant would save you.” 

“Forgive me for doubting you. And forgive me for reminding you I saved you from the cursed ice.” I honestly don’t hate Merula, someone to go hard against and not pull punches with reminded me of Jacob growing up. He never took it easy on my just because I was younger. I honestly miss that kind of butting-heads sibling rivalry that we had years ago. Merula, though, I still never have been able to get a straight answer on how much she actually hates me versus the appearance of it all. I don’t think I’d act much differently if my parents were locked away and having to live...actually I don’t know who she lives with if they are gone. I should ask Rowan and Penny about that later. And come to think of it, Merula wasn’t as big a competition this year in skill. We were on about on par the first two years. Something this year was different. 

“Hey dumbo, are you still here? Hey, I’m insulting you.” 

Blinking back to reality I see Merula flicking a small bezoar in my direction. “Sorry, I was thinking about the look on your face when you were trapped.”

She rolled her eyes and let out her trademark sigh of disgust, “I don’t want to hear about you thinking about my face.”

“It looks great on a dartboard.” Fire today, Marik, solid fire on that one. To avoid giving myself a pat on the back I picked up the bezoar Merula was kind enough to share and finished up my antidote for common poisons.

Snape called our attention as class was closing, “Before the holiday, you will each brew one advanced potion not covered yet in this class. It will test your skill studying your potion as well as how far along you make it before the end of the term.”

Rowan shot up his hand.

“What is it, Mr. Khanna?”

“What if we don’t finish? Can we still pass?”

“It would be extraordinarily difficult for any one of you to succeed in brewing your potions given a year, much less hours. How you choose to complete a task in the time given is up to you. Advance far enough and you will succeed in the course. Fail to come prepared and your marks will suffer. With one month’s notice I would expect none of you to daly.” Snape levitated a cauldron from the rear of the class to the table nearest the door. “Pick a potion. Write your name next to it on the parchment. Dismissed.” Snape appeared behind Merula and I, “You both. Mr. Rosier has requested your potion results are included in your current...competition. Whomever brews the better potion will earn fifty points. The other will lose fifty points.”

Awesome, Snape was going to significantly shape the outcome of their point results without actually doing anything to give more points overall. Slytherin gotta Slytherin.

* * *

“Snape did that? You know that means he’s got it out for you, Marik.”

“Thanks, Rowan, I hadn’t noticed that.” 

“I was thinking about it and we all have a different potion, so no student will probably get the same one. What if we found out which was Merula’s and took any books on those from the library?”

“Not going to lie, I love that idea. I’m not going to tell anyone mine now.” The parchment they wrote their names on had some spell that hid their name after writing so no other students could see. Probably for this exact reason. “How can we find out her potion?”

“Huh, hadn’t thought of that. I could go and research ways to spy on her and see if she talks about it.”

“You go do that.” Always the library with this one. “I have two Hufflepuffs in mind that could help. Catch you later.”

Herbology class had returned to normal after the boggart incident. Everyone was on edge a bit as more boggarts were popping up around campus now and a few students were making a master list of fears for next Halloween.

“I’m not going to spy for you, Marik.” Penny shut him down as soon as he asked.

“Not spying. Not like an active mission. But, if you happen to hear what she is working on then feel free to pass that on.”

“Wotcher!” Tonks bounded between Penny and I, “Talking about getting into no good?”

“Yes,” I start staring back at Penny’s face shaking to avoid asking Tonks’ advice. “I am trying to beat Merula at a competition. The fate of my winning rests on making a better potion and I was hoping to find out her potion and swipe those books from the library.”

“That’s not very fair. You can’t just hide all that she needs. Plus there could be other potions in there.” Tonks had a point and Penny started smiling in relief just for a moment. “What you really want to do is keep her distracted. Wait for her to go study and then send her one using one of the school owls. Pince will have her kicked out in no time. I always hang out in the library after breaking things just in case I get some mail.”

“That was exquisite, Tonks. Thank you.” I couldn’t keep a giant grin a secret from Penny. “And Penny, side note, after my last detention I found that Lethe River Water you wanted.”

“Shhh. Later. Meet me in the far corridor tonight and I’ll explain.”

* * *

It’s been almost half the year already, but I finally have a use for Ben. “Buddy!” I shout walking up to his Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. “Are you still following Merula around?”

“N-not usually. Why? Did she say something? Did I say something?”

“No, no no, everything’s fine. No danger for you.” Wait a moment, this could be useful… “But I have seen her looking like she is scheming something. Something is going on with her and the library and I wanted to ask if you could keep an eye on her and run and let me know if you see her going into the library by herself or with anyone. Can you do that?”

The color drained from Ben’s face, I’d wager for at least the sixth time today, “Does it have to do with the Vaults?”

I shrug, “I’m really not sure. But you know her. She’s always up to something and she hasn’t been attacked at all by a boggart yet this year. How many have you come across? Three already?”

“Five. They keep finding my hiding places.”

_ Whiny little Gryffindor _. “I wouldn’t put it past her to try scaring you. You’re right. It’s probably about the vaults and we should keep an eye on her.”

Ben picked up his last half of a sandwich and raced out of the hall. 

* * *

I checked my watch and wondered when Penny would show up. We didn’t exactly pick a time and I began to feel a little silly standing around in the hallway after curfew with so many people looking to get me in detention again. Finally I catch her walking down the hall. “Hey Penny, what took you so long?”

“Benny? Why are you out after curfew?” _ Apparently that isn’t Penny. Awesome. _

“_ Petrificus totalus!” _A small burst of white light shot from down the hall and struck the stranger in the back. Penny ran over and rolled the Ravenclaw prefect to her side to keep her from seeing Marik and Penny. “Why did you have to say my name? Now I can get in trouble.” She muttered yanking my arm inside the corridor.

I shake my arm loose, “Okay, what is this all about? This is extremely out of character for you.”

Penny stretched out her hand, “Give me the water. That’s the last ingredient for the potion.”

“What kind of potion?”

“Forgetfulness potion.”

“For the prefect? That’s a bit much.” That didn’t make sense, “Wait, no, who is it for?”

“Me.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she poured the vial into the cauldron on the floor. 

I lift Penny to her feet and move her away from the potion. “That’s not safe at all. Tell me what you want to forget first. Did someone hurt you?”

“No, someone else got hurt. Scarlett. She was my best friend back at home. We would play together since we were kids and every summer between terms.” Penny wiped her eye. “That boggart was a werewolf because...because a werewolf killed her. A werewolf killed her and I didn’t do anything. She wanted to see it better. I had my wand just in case. But I froze and Scarlett...”

“I understand. It’s okay.” I pulled Penny close and felt her hands clutch my sleeve. “I’m sorry for what happened. I can’t imagine what that feels like.”

“I need to forget. Ever since that boggart I can’t get her out of my head. I can’t sleep, I think about her all the time, it’s driving me insane. Everywhere I go I see pieces of Scarlett or the beast that killed her.”

I wasn’t prepared for this. I don’t know which is worse, the memory or forgetting? Could I forget Jacob? That would...be the worst thing in the world. “Penny you can’t drink that.”

“Why?” Her cheeks bore streaks from the tears and I felt one of my own slide down.

“You can’t forget, Scarlett. That’s not right by her. You aren’t weak. It was a werewolf. Even the nicest person will kill once they turned. It is not your fault.”

“I froze, I didn’t stop it.”

“I’m sorry. You can’t drink that.”

I tripped backwards as Penny shoved me away. “Who are you to tell me what to do? When do you ever listen to others?”

I want to get mad, but I can’t. This wasn’t Penny right now. She isn’t used to being vulnerable or have no control. Forgetting is her way to try and take that back. I take Penny’s hand and pull her in for a tighter hug. “I understand that you miss her. Trust me I know that feeling. But you can’t forget her. That’s not you. That’s worse than being scared because you are choosing to give up.”

I cried with Penny. It hurts to lose someone. Penny’s body went still and she looked up at me, “There’s enough for you too.”

A thousand tons pressed upon my chest. I can’t breathe. The idea to forget hits harder than a moment ago now that it was a possibility. Jacob. My brother. Everything for the last three years has been to solve that mystery. “Who would I be? I wouldn’t be me.” Placing my forehead on Penny’s I look into her blue eyes and feel the same longing to forget. But I can’t. “You are stronger than this. You don’t need to be the one everyone counts on in here.” I’m not sure how long we stood there together. However long, it was long enough.

Penny agreed to not take the potion and we hid it inside a cupboard behind some old brushes that even a niffler would have trouble finding. 

It was midnight when we both were calmed down enough to act half-normal again. They sat together on the floor with their backs against a desk. “How do you avoid being sad all the time?” She asked.

“Constant jokes about myself and others. Staying busy so I don’t get to think about it much. Leave me alone too long and my mind wanders.”

Penny laid her head on my shoulder, “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

Wrapping an arm around Penny I settle in. Barely five minutes later she passed out. _ Definitely not the worse place to be in the world. _

* * *

I woke up with a dull burning sensation in my neck. Penny was still asleep with her head in my lap and I wasn’t in a rush to wake her up. I took Bill’s advice and started practicing wand movements with my right hand in case there was ever a time my left was unable to function. After mouthing _ Flipendo _ for the tenth time I see my watch reads half past eight. “Penny.” Rubbing her shoulders. “Penny it’s breakfast time and we don’t want to be late for class.”

Penny slowly sat up and looked around the room. “We were here all night?”

“Yep, you nearly missed breakfast. How are you feeling?”

She looked at the cupboard briefly, “Sad, but you are right. I need to remember her. That way there won’t be a next time and I will be ready.”

I felt my muscles moan as I stretched and stood. My robes were covered in dirt and dust from my spot on the floor. “Let’s grab a bite before we have to run off.” I reach out and she takes my hand and immediately goes in for a hug.

“Thank you. Please-”

“I won’t say anything. I don’t like secrets but this one is yours.” We dust off and carefully sneak out into the hall and mix into the groups of students without gaining attention on ourselves. I know Penny will eventually chastise me for this later, but I sneak back between lunch and our afternoon Transfiguration class to move the potion back into my dorm.


	3. The Frog Choir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marik has to get on Tulip's good side to get into Jacob's secret room mixed with the Frog Choir side quest.

Ben came rushing into Hogsmeade while I was having a drink with Rowan and Hagrid to say Merula was heading towards the library with Barnaby and Ismelda. “That can’t be good. When is anything good?”

“How did you know where to find me?”   


“I’ve been running for a long time.”

_ Good ole loyal Gryffindor,  _ “Thank you Ben, that’s what we wanted to know.” I leave a few coins on the table. “Hagrid, thank you for talking, I didn’t know Jacob and Madam Rosmerta were friends. I didn’t know he really had any friends. Come on, Rowan.” I make a beeline for the door.   


“Wait, you don’t want me to come?”

“You’ve done great, Ben, you can stay here to be safe.”

“Thank you! I don’t want any part of getting in her way. I’ll just get a water to calm down.”

I stopped listening after Ben started talking to himself. Rowan and I had a long way to get to the owlery, but we made it there in just over half an hour. Merula was hopefully still in the library as we were done with classes for the day. Rowan and I pen three howlers each and send them off.

Rowan suggested we get to the common room to see Merula’s face as she stormed back in and it was one hundred percent worth it. Barnaby even had a few bits of his robe singeing, I wasn’t surprised no one told him.

Merula spotted Rowan on the couch with me and leapt over the back and stood over him with an icy stare. Her wand out, “What made you think that was funny?”

“What do you mean?” He choked out, his smile betraying him instantly.

“You don’t think I know your voice? Just because it’s louder doesn’t mask your accent enough.” Merula spun around, “And you. I’m goin-”

It is difficult to talk when you have been struck in the face by a pillow. Maybe not my proudest moment, but based on the vibes Merula was radiating I was fairly certain a curse was coming my way and I didn’t want to stick around for that. I bolted out the common room down the hall and was back at Hogsmeade faster than an owl could fly.   


I found Madam Rosmerta and asked for a moment to speak and she brushed me off twice. It was getting towards curfew and I wasn’t about to let a lead on Jacob go after so many other distractions this year. Other patrons were filing out and I spotted the eye rolls she gave all of their tables. Without asking I swiped an apron off a door leading back into the kitchen and a rag from a half-cleaned table and went to work.

Knowing I would be out late I loaded up as many mugs and plates as would fit on the back counter and scrubbed down a dozen or so tables. “Thank you, Marik. I guess I owe it to you to talk for a moment. How can I help?”

“My brother Jacob and you were friends? I was told he was in here a lot while he went to Hogwarts.”

“Oh yes, I remember him well. Always sat in the corner over there and wouldn’t talk much to other students but very friendly with other wizards and witches. He was always writing in a little notebook of his. I’m sorry for everything that happened with him. He seemed nice. He gave me a very elegant black quill once out of the blue just a few weeks before he...left.”

“A quill? Do you still have it?”

“Yes it was the nicest thing, no one ever gives me anything without expecting something in return. If you can clean up a little more I can run back and fetch it for you.”

“On it.” I take a bin I foolishly missed before and piled in all the drinks left behind and wipe even more tables, two of which I realize halfway through I already cleaned.

“Here you go dear.” Rosmerta handed me the quill, unaware I had un-transfigured another quill just like it. 

I place the quill on the table in front of me and take out my wand. “ _ Reparifarge.” _

The quill bloated and morphed into a notebook with very worn edges and marked pages. Madam Rosmerta gasped and turned away to hide her displeasure at concealing a wanted object for years.

“I’ll take that.” Filch forced his way by and pocketed the notebook inside his coat. “I’ve been ordered to confiscate all Vault related contraband.”

I stare down Filch, sure that steam is blowing from my ears.  _ Does everyone know where I am? Maybe I need to pick a new hangout. _   


“And you’ll be coming back with me for detention. It’s past curfew for students.”

“That’s my fault.” Rosmerta stepped back in. “Mr. Watkins was doing some jobs for me and I kept him too late. Please send my apologies to the Headmaster.”

Filch’s face soured. More so than usual. “Fine. I’ll catch you again soon. Off we go then, back to the castle. You too, Ms. Karasu.”

Filch came in so fast I didn’t notice the Ravenclaw behind him swaying back and forth like she wasn’t in any sort of hurry. We didn’t say much on the way back to the castle except during a quick glance from Tulip, “Nice one with the Howlers. You’re pretty funny.”

I give a silent thumbs-up and scurried back to my common room as soon as Filch signals I’m free to leave.   


Inside is dark save for a single torch floating above the middle of the room. Tiptoeing I move along the walls to avoid detection. A creak from the entry door turns my body to stone and I see Merula slide back into the common room with a hood over most of her face. I don’t know why, but the idea to jump and scare her was too tempting to resist. “Boo!”

Merula did not scream. Not in fear at least. “ _ Flipendo!” _

I cartwheeled back into the wall and planted my face against the floor.  _ Not worth it. _

“I have half a mind to petrify you and leave you here all night.” She smiled, “But I don’t want another excuse for you and Penny to hang out.”

_ How did she know that? Was she tailing me while I had Ben following her? _

“Huh. Something did happen then. Great.  _ Petrificus totalus!”  _ And like that I was stuck upside down. Merula drug a throw rug and tossed it over me. “That’s for the howlers.”

The stunning spell varied with how long it held depending on the strength and wish of the caster. I was pretty sure I was in for a long night.

* * *

Rowan politely noted how my face was still red in the morning after all the blood chilled there for three hours overnight. No comments on sneaking into Filch’s office again to steal the notebook back, just my face. What a friend. With a swift kick to his chair we dove into Jacob’s notebook and read through all the notes he took. Only a handful of pages in it was clear Jacob was referring to other notes and items he had collected while looking for the vaults. He wrote things like, “The diagrams of the corridor and searched rooms is above the cabinet” and “Added a new artefact to the mystery bin. Will decipher later.”

“Marik, does this sound like he had a hideout somewhere?”

“Yeah, but we’ve been through all the Slytherin dorms and there’s nothing from Jacob that  _ Revelio  _ found. He must have had a secret room somewhere.”

“The castle is huge! How can we find a specific room that could have been cleaned out in the last eight years?”

I hate to admit it, but I need Rowan to research the castle for me. “Can you go find a map of the entire school down to each classroom and office? Maybe one from years ago that isn’t on a new map in case someone is trying to hide it.”

“Ah, I can do that after class. So exciting!”

I flip pages back and forth looking for anything to jump out to help narrow down where to search. Nothing.   


A week passes of checking doors and locks in the dungeon and on the west side of the castle. Taking a long route after Herbology I run my hands against the walls feeling for any hidden passage or clue when I happen on a padlocked door with two key holes. “Tulip.” Reads the bottom of the lock. _Why would she put a lock on a door?_ _That’s as good a place as any to check._

I hunt down the Ravenclaw after our Transfiguration class, “What’s inside that locked door down past the Greenhouse?”

“I’m a little busy. Dennis got stuck to this Dungbomb and I need to get him out.”

“This is serious. What’s in the-”

“I know, he’s really not happy.”

“Wait, who isn’t happy?”

“Dennis. He looks so sad.”

I stare at the toad. It blinked at me. “Okay. I need you to talk to me. Here.” I kneel down and Dennis hopped over to my area. I have taken apart plenty of things in my day. Putting them back together...not so much.

“Wow he really likes you. Thanks!”

I pat Dennis’ head and Dennis let out a long croak. I start to wonder how intelligent toads are. “Can we focus now. What’s in the room with the lock?”

“I uh, it’s…” Tulip pursed her lips as a secret fought to get out.

“Is it Jacob’s room?”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I really liked the Howlers but I can’t help you.”

“Why?”

“Because the room is locked. I only have one of the keys.”

“Where’s the other?”

“You’re not going to like it.”

“I already don’t like it, Tulip. Who has the key?” I stand and half the short distance between us.

“It’s...Merula.”

I hurl the disabled dungbomb into a bench. “It’s always her. Every bloody time. Son-of-” I pause and take a long, slow breath. “No wonder she’s been sneaking out and coming back late these last couple weeks.”

“You can’t get in with just one key. The room’s been locked since early October.”

_ Great, so Merula has a DIFFERENT mystery hangout routine.  _ “Can I please have your key?”

“Why? We worked hard trying to figure out the room.”

“He’s my brother. I shouldn’t have to say that. It was his secret room. He was looking for the cursed vaults. I’m looking for the cursed vaults. What else do you need?”

“Make me an offer?”

“I’m supposed to buy this from you? Just give me the freaking key.”

“I can’t deal with Merula anymore. Not with her ditching Dennis with the Frog Choir coming up.”

_ I swear this girl is weirder than Tonks. _ “I give. What did she do?”

“Merula was supposed to sing with Dennis in the Choir, but after we fought about the room we stopped talking and she won’t audition with him.”

“Why can’t you sing with him?”

“Merpeople sound better than me.” I honestly don’t know how to rate that. “She wanted to get in since they have two spots open.” A smile formed in the corner of her mouth and grew across her face. “What if you beat her and sing with Dennis?"

“I don’t really-”  _ If it gets her to help me…  _ “Yeah, okay. I’ll go up to Filch and give it a go. Lord knows they’re tired of hearing me in the showers.”

* * *

Another week and I’ve hardly studied for my final potion. But I have practiced songs and found a few that make me sound not-terrible and I give my audition.   


Merula killed hers. I legit did not realize this was a talent of hers. Naturally she came down to gloat afterwards, “You should just pack up and leave. I’m good enough to get both spaces and you were...average at best.”

Rowan leapt to my defense, “Marik has practiced his pants off all week non-stop.”

“He should have just stopped.”   


I pull back the scrawny Slytherin, “Thanks, Rowan, I got this.”

“No you don’t. You don’t even want this. You’re just trying to take it from me.” Merula spat back.

“No, I am trying to get your key. The one that you and Tulip use to get into my brother’s room that you’ve kept secret from me.”

Merula’s eye glowered at me, “She’s behind this. She’s more of a snake than our House. That witch will betray you.” Merula gave my back a slap to push aside and stomped out, her boots echoing halfway down the halls.

Flitwick asked for everyone’s attention. “I have mixed news everyone. Madam Pomfrey has informed me that Ms. Edwards will be making a full recovery after her boggart incident before the end of term festival and so she will be remaining on the choir. This means unfortunately I will only have one spot open and will need some time to think.”

I turn to leave and Rowan rips something off my robes, “You have a little paper stuck to your back. OH!” He dropped the folded note, “It’s from Merula.”

I read, “Meet me out by the training grounds. Come alone. Don’t keep me waiting.”  _ I’m not going to make it to Christmas at this rate. _

Hustling down I find Merula standing in the open field. Her wand already drawn. “I was hoping this was going to be a race again. Is that off the table?”

“Duel me for the spot. If you lose you drop out.”

“That concerned you won’t get it?”

Merula took a shot and we exchanged volleys. Her spells were louder, she shouts like no one else, but her movements weren’t as refined and I used the knock-back jinx on a fallen branch to crash into her. “ _ Duro” _ The branch solidified into stone and kept her pinned to the ground.

“What is this? You cheated.”

“It’s a duel Merula. You cast spells. I cast better spells. It just how the world works.”   


“Get this off me, it actually hurts.”

_ Crap, not what I was going for.  _ “Sorry.” I lift a side of the branch and Merula slid her legs out. “Why is this so important to you?”

“I’ve always wanted to be on the Choir.” Merula looked away. “My mom was on the choir when she went to Hogwarts.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Of course not. You don’t know about anything.”

As a reflex I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure that-”

Merula flicked her arm to brush off my hand, “I don’t want your pity.”

_ Oh my god I think she sounded sad. _ I walk around and see she isn’t scowling or pretending to shoot curses out of her eyes for once. Merula looked upset.   


“We used to practice for when I could join. Then you had to try and screw that up. You’re trying to steal finding the vaults from me. Your teaming up with that ratty Ravenclaw. I actually wanted this. You just want to help yourself.” Merula stuck her wand out, “ _ Wingardium leviosa.” _ The branch lifted and she looked at me. It was time to find out how far she could levitate a branch-sized rock. I sprinted back towards the castle and camped out in the Great Hall until Flitwick finally came to announce his decision.

“It was difficult. So many great students and talents are here today, we would be lucky to have any, er most, of you on our choir. As we were able to keep one of our female voices we elected to select a boy for the other spot.   


“Oh no.” The pit that had been burrowing in my stomach since seeing Merula moping sprouted into a tree of discomfort.   


“Marik Watkins. Congratulations! Come on up my boy.”

I took Dennis from Tulip and started towards the stage.  _ I can’t do it. Blast me for being soft.  _ Merula was sitting in her usual spot at the Slytherin table. I pass right by Flitwick and straight to Merula. “Take Dennis.” I say holding the toad and his pillow out to her. “Sing with him like you first promised and just take my spot. You’re right it means more and...I’m sorry.”

Squinting, “What’s the catch?”   


“Give me the key.”

Merula fished through her pockets and tossed a brass key on the table, “Have fun searching. I got everything I needed from there ages ago.”   


As if she single-handedly won the House Cup Merula glided to the choir.   


With a shrug, Flitwick said Merula was hands-down his top choice and was overall happy with the switch. “We will change some things around before our performance at the end of the term. You have a wonderful talent, Ms. Snyde.”

“Did you see her smile?” Tulip asked flopping down next to me.

“Trick of the light.” I examined the key and turned it in my hands. “But it got me this so it all worked out. Let’s go unlock that room.”


	4. Banishing Boggarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tulip and the MC get into Jacob's room and find their next clue on opening the Vault of Fear.

“_Lumos” _ I hold my wand above our heads and Tulip and I step into Jacob’s room.

“It’s colder than I remembered in here.”

“The snow outside probably isn’t helping. Where did you and Merula-” A cloaked figure rose behind a desk. “Who are you!” I glance at Tulip, “Who else had your keys?”

“No one.” Tulip backpedaled to the door.

The figure floated around the desk. _ Jacob? _ My mind wonders. They look so dark even with the light. The hood drops back to reveal a pale face with red eyes and slits where a nose should be. _ Voldemort! _“Run!” I spin and don’t see Tulip behind me. Without pause I split for the door and flick it shut with a finger as I sped around the corner down the hall.

“Marik over here!” Tulip calls from the side of the greenhouse.

“What was...no, that wasn’t...It wasn’t You-Know-Who.” My cheeks blushed. “I just got scared by a boggart. Was that always there?”

“No, we never saw one here before. But they’re all over the castle now.”

“I need to get into that room.” I look inside the greenhouse and see Professor Sprout tending to the plants. “Follow me.”

Professor Spout notices us as soon as we enter, “How can I help you dears? Not up to any tricks Ms. Karasu?”

“No professor.” I lead, “I wanted to ask about the spell you used to beat the boggart in our class a few months ago. Ridiculous. Could you teach it to us?”

Setting down a water pot, “_ Riddikulus _, not ridiculous. I’m sorry but I am not a charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and students should report any boggart sightings instead of face them themselves.” Sprout took a long breath through her nose, “You can learn a lot from plants by their smell. People too. You both are very afraid. Did you see a boggart?”

_ Note to self: shower. _“No ma’am. Potions. I only have a week to study for Professor Snape and I’m freaking out a little.”

“I’m trying to help with blowing off steam and distracting him.” Tulip chimed in.

“Right, yes, that sounds like yourself. Run along and be careful. It’s not as safe after dark around here. There have been more boggart sightings down here than just about anywhere in the castle. Poor Madam Pince.” Sprout trailed off minding her garden again.

Tulip and I catch Bill in the Great Hall coaching Ben on standing up for himself, or at least I hope he is. “Hey Bill, can you help us figure out how to banish a boggart?”

“Hey, I can help with that, just not today. I am helping tutor transfigurations today and tomorrow.”

“I need help with that too!” Ben leapt off his seat.

_ Of course he needs help. _ “What’s the trick to that spell? _ Riddikulus _?”

“The spell isn’t the hard part. You need to think of something funny so that the boggart runs away. The trick, and this is what can be tough, is you have to know your biggest fear so you can overcome it.”

“What’s your biggest fear?”

Bill stared down at Charlie enjoying lunch with the Quidditch team, “Losing my family. I came across a boggart and my family was trapped in a cage and drowning.” Bill rested his elbows on the table. He remained silent for a moment before Tulip snapped her fingers to bring him back, “Sorry. I changed it into those muggle pool noodles and butterbeer.”

“So think of something funny? I can manage that.” Tulip cracked her knuckles.

_ It’s just Voldemort. No it’s not, it’s a fake. _ “Okay, how bad can it be, right?” _ At least I sound confident. _

“There’s one in the far room by the courtyard. I haven’t been able to hide in there for weeks.” Ben sputtered out.

I waved the idea away, “I’d rather focus on my own boggart.”

“No, that’s a good idea.” Tulip jumped in, “Let’s practice first so we don’t run from the room again and risk others seeing us. Not much of a secret room when we burst out yelling. And with teachers hunting down boggarts they’d-”

“Point made. No one else goes in that room.”

“There’s another just yesterday in the courtyard fountain. And when I was following Merula one just showed up on the second floor corridor so I couldn’t see where she went. And-”

“Thank you, Ben. That’s enough. You can stop following Merula now.” I may have forgotten he was still doing that. Before Ben can rattle off more fears I swipe a dinner roll off the tray and marched in step with Tulip down the hall. “Hey Tulip, what’s your biggest fear?”

“I-I think you’ll have to wait and see. It’s not You-Know-Who if that’s what your asking. I can go first.”

“Fair enough.” We crack the door open just enough to slip in without making a scene. “_ Lumos.” Why does every room have to be so dark? Would light bulbs be that bad? _ “Where do you think it’ll be? There’s a thousand cabinets and drawers.”

“It will be in one of them.”

“Thanks.” _ Freaking smart-aleck answer. _ “Start searching over there and I’ll start here.”

Tulip jabbed me in the ribs pulling out her wand, “No need. Found it.”

“Merula?” I didn’t see that coming. “Did Ben come here so often it got stuck as her? Is that a thing?”

“No.” Tulip aimed her wand at the boggart, “I’m actually quite afraid of her and what she can do. _ Riddikulus!” _

Merula’s robes shrank into a petite lace sweater with pink cats wrapped around her waist. Her boots raised while thinning and became glass slippers. Her face...she had rosy cheeks and lipstick and it was the funniest thing that could have happened. My sides split and I reached out to a desk to sturdy myself taking in the dainty Miss Merula. I forgot to laugh. I forgot to breathe. After a moment of enjoying this Tulip and I roared in laughter together and the boggart scowled once before diving towards a chest and disappearing into smoke.

“Tulip. That was the best. I wish, I wish I had a camera for that.”

“Why do you want a picture of her?”

“To show everyone. To send into the Daily Prophet. To rub in her face.” I take a long, deep breath to calm down. “That was the best. Ok, my turn.” I inch towards the chest and lift the lid with my foot. 

The boggart sprung out and saw Tulip first and shifted into Merula before turning towards me just beside it. In the second it took to change for me I saw my idea. Voldemort bore down over me. Jumping back to give my arm room to flick, “_ Riddikulus!” _

Rainbow hair sprung out of his shining scalp. His slit of a nose ballooned into a red bulb. And the flowing robes tucked in as they became bleached white and grew spots. 

Tulip gasped, “It’s You-Know-Honk!” 

The boggart danced its way back to the chest as I wiped tears with my robe. “I owe you a butterbeer for that one.”

The clock became apparent for the first time all evening. We were a few minutes before curfew and agreed to meet after classes the next day to spend all the time we could searching Jacob’s room.

* * *

Not going to lie, it wasn’t _ as _ funny the second time seeing a Volde-Clown hop around. At least the jump-scare wasn’t as bad either for me so it was a more muted reunion in Jacob’s room for all parties. I honestly laughed more at Tulip’s “You-Know-Honks” nickname, but we chased away the boggart so we’re good.

Jacob’s room was a mess. Nothing like I remembered back at home before we moved away. Jacob was tidy to a fault and never left his toys around for me to claim and play with. He would even put my stuff away to keep the house organized. This room though...either he was going crazy or someone, or a pair of someones, wrecked it.

“Did you and Merula have to rummage so gingerly?”

“It wasn’t a pretty sight to begin with.”

“Jacob didn’t act this way at home. This doesn’t feel right. Like someone else was here.”

“Maybe he did-” Tulip didn’t finish the thought. She didn’t have to. I know people think he went mad. The evidence around us didn’t help. “There’s a lot of notes along the wall with the vaults. They all seem like ideas and sightings.”

“You’re right, here’s one talking about the cursed ice. One with the forest. One about fear?” I pulled down a strip of parchment labeled “Vault of Fear.”

Tulip shined her wand to read the paper. “That sounds like the right one. What’s it say?”

“It says the vault was opened before a long time ago. Boggarts everywhere like now. They were the worst by the library and they shut down the east hallway.”

“Didn’t Professor Sprout say something about the library?”

_ Why couldn’t I have met Tulip on my first day instead of Rowan? _“Thank you, you ridiculous Ravenclaw. She said she felt bad for Madam Pince. There must be something going on by the library.”

“But if that’s where the vault is why is it not closed like before?”

Good question...I’m not sure why. “Where could boggarts hide in the library and not be seen that much?”

“Do we need to talk to Rowan?”

“Yes, for once this is the perfect job for Rowan.” _ Of course. And maybe next week we’ll need to rely on Ben to find a secret passageway, on accident of course. _ “I will talk to him about this in our dormitory tonight. After that we’ll make plan to find the vault and break this next curse.”

“All in time before winter break and finishing potions?”

My face went paler than Voldemort’s. I can count on my pinky how many hours I studied for Snape’s exam. “I will see what I can do. Sounds like I’ll be in the library plenty myself studying while searching around.”

“I need to get Dennis back from Merula before bed. She’s been pulling overtime with the Frog Choir for their show at the Christmas Feast. Good thing you gave that up or else you’d never have any time left.”

“Right.” I remember about Tulip’s boggart, “Hey, real quick. Why is Merula of all things your boggart? That does seem like a Ben thing more than you.”

Tulip slumped against a chair and listlessly flipped a few pages of a book. “She was my first real friend here. I thought with how similar we were we could be friends even though our parents are so different. My parents were always super strict and so seeing Merula be the big bad witch was fun. We had a lot of fun sneaking around and pulling pranks.” Tulip saw my jaw clench, “Sorry for the ones involving you. Anyway, she was getting a little too bossy and we were looking around this room and I didn’t want to wait on her schedule. I came here without her a few times and she found out and freaked out at me. We agreed to lock the room and each took a key, but she never said anything to me after. Nothing nice at least. I still open some of my books and find notes saying I’ll always be alone and have no friends. That I’m a traitor.”

“I understand that. To be fair, if you didn’t have your key I would probably be spending all my time down here as well. Not to hide anything from you, but to just figure out what’s going on. I want to understand all this mess as well. Every time I think I get closer to Jacob I find out something else I didn’t really know.”

“Merula even threatened to send my parents an owl after we stole a book from the restricted section and nearly blew up the owlrey.”

“I remember the howlers from that one.”

“My parents would have yanked me from school if they even knew I was friends with the daughter of a death-eater like her. She always tries to hold that over my head.”

“She’s pretty rough around the edges.”

“And the sides. And her face.” Tulip joked.

“She’s the worst.” I laugh. “Thanks for the help, Tulip. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you and for that I think we’re pretty good friends. If you ever want to snoop around with or without me, all I ask is you fill me in on whatever you find and I will do the same after talking to Rowan. I’m going to look through some of these notebooks and see if I can make any more sense of them. I learned a little with the codes Jacob used that Rowan translated.”

We high-five passing each other and I settle down for a long evening of curse-code-breaking.


	5. Problems in Potions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to recruit Barnaby to the cause and get a little too nerdy during a potions exam.

I brought a towel with me when I asked Rowan for help exploring the library in case he made a mess in excitement. We agreed to also focus on potions first with just three days before we needed to brew our best in Snape’s class.

I take a small handful of green notecards from Rowan and scan through half a dozen aisles in the library, leaving a card between the last book and bookend on the shelf at eye level to mark the places checked.  _ Not a bad idea, Rowan. I’ll give you that. _   


No boggarts to be found today. I brush off a cobweb and withdraw a book on advanced potions. The remaining copies were likely long checked out. Dropping the book against the table I clear two seats beside me from the dust as half the cover seemed to disintegrate.  


I look over the steps with the ingredients and recipe before me. “So I have an hour to make a potion that recommends three hours to make. Awesome.”  


“Shh!” Pince appeared like a boggart herself from around a corner.

I list out the ingredients on my own parchment and I sort the resting times against the preparation steps and even which hand I was supposed to hold the cauldron in. “Clearly not made with left-handers in mind.”

Glancing some time later at the clock I convince myself to do another sweep of some shelves and take a few more notecards and slither up and down a few shelves. My mind was half on the boggarts and half how to attack the potion. Professor Snape knows one hundred percent how far I’ll get if I just go straight through the list. That’s not going to earn me high marks. I need to do something different to get ahead. Nothing in this aisle and I slide in another card. Then it hits me. I split the steps. I can work on steps one, four, eight, and twelve then go through and start putting the pieces of the potion together. Or something like that.

“Ah, that’s a lot of waiting and stirring.” Rowan whined as my foot drug back a stool to sit on.

“No luck on your...actually I don’t know what you even have to make. I”m sorry.” I was sort of sorry.

“I need to brew Skele-gro. It just takes so long to make though. There’s no fast track.”

“Really?” Ok, now I was actually sorry. “Madam Pomfrey and I brewed some last year during the cursed ice-capades. I probably should have told you that sooner. I know she’ll have some tips for you.”

“You’re the best! I’m going to see her right now.” I don’t think I have ever seen Rowan leave a library so fast.

I divvy up my list and take a trip to Hogsmeade to buy some props to help practice my timing. I end up with a couple of flavors of juice and some Bertie Bott’s jellybeans. Trudging back to the castle I hear a familiar berating going on down near the Lake. I catch a glimpse of Merula waving some kind of book at Barnaby, screaming her head off. She chucked the book into the water and stormed off. Her boots crunching the snow could be heard a whole minute after she disappeared over a hill.  


Barnaby always looked either confused or happy and I never understood that. Sometimes both at the same time like he was happy to just be ignorant. I saw him point his wand at the half-submerged book and call it back to him.  _ I need to learn that spell _ .

“Hey Barnaby! What spell was that?”

“It’s not a spell. It’s a spellbook.  _ Lord give me strength. _ “And not that it matters, but I was getting it to help crush you.”

“That actually sounds like it matters a lot to me.”

“Well, you don’t need to know about it yet.”  


“Fair enough. What spell did you use to get it out of the Lake?”

“ _ Accio _ . It’s a great one. My brothers would use it on each other, but mostly me, and drag us or big things to hit each other with.”

_ I fully believe this happened. I don’t even disagree with the use. _ “Could you teach me?”

“Why?”

“I can teach you a spell I know. Plus if you want I can duel Merula and get her off your back.”  _ I need to be careful he doesn’t take what I say literally. _

“Merula’s the strongest witch at Hogwarts.”

“Besides Merula, who else says that?”

“Loads of people, I think. What makes you think you can beat her?”

“History? I have a pretty good record against her actually. We dueled for the Frog Choir spot just a few weeks ago.”

“Wait, isn’t she in the Frog Choir?”

“Yes,”  _ Think of a lie,  _ “The loser had to join.”

“That’s awesome.” Barnaby wondered for a moment on who to follow. He looked down and followed Merula’s tracks still visible in the snow. “How do I know you can really beat her? Could you beat me?”

“I don’t think we’ve had a chance to do that yet. If I win will you teach me that  _ Accio  _ spell sometime?”

“Okay!” Barnaby’s excitement at the prospect of a duel threw water on my confidence. “And if I win...I get to throw you in the lake instead of the book.”

“Sure. That sounds fair. Why not.” I did not appreciate how cold that would feel.  _ As if I could lose. _ There was my confidence and extreme denial. “Tonight let’s meet up in the dueling room past Snape’s office. We’re already in the dungeons and just need to slip by Felix and the Bloody Baron.”

“Oh Merula, Isemelda and I do that all the time when we need to do...stuff. Just tell the Baron that Peeves is bothering some of the old Slytherin portraits and he disappears for hours.”

I crack a smile, “Barnaby, you and I could be good friends. We should talk more often.”

“Merula wouldn’t like that.”

“You don’t have to hang out with her all the time. You could join my team. We have Bill Weasley, one of the best duelers in the whole school. I even beat him once.”

Barnaby was hooked and we walked back to the castle together and even got Bill to visit us at our Slytherin table for a moment to help win Barnaby over.

At midnight, Barnaby and I met in the common room and used some sixth-years family jacket with their name embroidered on the back to sneak out and blame if we were caught. In the dueling room Barnaby was quick to say no Unforgivable curses as if that was a Lee house rule when dueling each other.

Unfortunately, Barnaby with his background in being a younger sibling understood a moving target was harder to hit and as soon as we finished our countdown sprinted away and wildly fired several  _ Immobulus  _ spells.

We exchange volleys of some of our more recent learned spells including  _ Flipendo _ and the wonderful petrifying charm from the train nearly a semester ago. Barnaby, as slow and calm as he sounds speaks his incantations lightning fast and puts my “fire rate” to shame. 

“ _ Incendio _ .” I light a trail of fire down the middle of the room keeping him pinned to a side. Barnaby moves behind a suit of armor and school banner. I aim at the banner and use  _ Wingardium leviosa _ to pull it off and twist around Barnaby. 

Barnaby, full smile, yells  _ Depulso _ and instead of a shot at me he hit the ground and like toothpaste shot out of the tube and rolled along the ground, stopping just feet from my line of fire that I had cast again to keep him on one side. “You wanted to see this one?  _ Accio!” _

My robes stretch forward as I fly end over end through the air towards Barnaby. I count as I rotate; three spin, two spin, one spin, “ _ Depulso!” _ Just before I met Barnaby’s fist I knock him back forty feet to the end of the hall and he disappears into a pile of cushions and sheets.

Racing down the line I extinguish the fire and rip away the sheets as they convulsed and muted sounds are coming from the pile. I pull off a final layer and Barnaby is laughing with hands over his ribs. “What’s so funny?”

“I felt like a bird that whole time. My mom gave me a little owl back home and she called it my ‘Barn-aby owl’ and that’s all I thought of until I hit the pile.” I pulled the insane person to their feet. “Right, great duel.” Barnaby grunted and circled his arms to stretch, “We’ll have to go again soon. After Christmas, definitely.” 

“After we practice that spell.” We laugh and clean up the room before sliding back to bed and agreeing Barnaby should start having lunch and study with us instead.

* * *

I strut into potions with half a dozen magic egg timers lent to me courtesy of Madam Rosmerta. Zonko’s didn’t have anything that was quiet and popping off back to London to do some muggle shopping wasn’t feasible. Madam Rosmerta was happy to lend me these from the kitchen in exchange for some more tableside work last night...and for most weekends over the holidays.

Snape emerged from the dim corner of the room with his standard grimace. I earned an extra look and a slow-step as he took in my extra supplies. “There will be no assisting each other. Students will rise or fall on their own incompetence.” Snape flicked his wand towards a large clock-face floating at the head of the classroom. “Begin.”

I section off a large corner of the table to lay out my ingredients and sprinted to the cabinets to get the measuring units. I heard only light muttering from Snape before my pace slowed to a crawl. I could feel weights around my ankles, but saw nothing. If I didn’t know how little Snape cared for either Merula or myself I’d,  _ internally only _ , accuse him of playing favorites. With each slowing step my feet earned their freedom. I tried shuffling by Ismelda and Barnaby and the weights sprung back again. Snape wasn’t looking anywhere near me though.  _ I think he actually put a spell that is slowing me down. A walking speed limit. Lame. _

I set my timers. I mix the potioning water and African sea salt, set up my cylinder of wormwood, chop my Valerian roots and set the pieces in water to reduce. I slide over a Sopophorous bean and go to cut it and the bean springs forward popping Rowan’s glasses. “Sorry!” I try to whisper. I fetch the bean off the floor and try cutting again and it flips above my own head and into my hair.  _ This was step one _ . Third try lands a bean into Barnaby’s cauldron two tables down and his potion goes up in smoke. I keep my head down and avoid eye contact. Twisting the knife into the table I fade out for a moment and miss one of my timer’s lighting up.  


“Marik?” Rowan starts.

“Yeah, oh!” I pull back the water and salt and set it carefully on a stool beside me. I can’t move that now until the blue light goes off.  


“Tick-tock, loser.”

_ Merula isn’t even sweating her potion, awesome.  _ I can’t get these beans to cut. I’m losing time. They’re too hard and small.  _ Too small? That’s it. “Engorgio.”  _ The bean grows to the side of Merula’s clenched fist.  _ That’s a standard measurement. _ I start to cut into the bean and it is more compliant now that I can hold half of it down as I slide. I need twelve of these and now I have one big one. No where in the ingredients is a conversion chart on giant beans. I know there’s something off about how volume works, but I don’t know any math that will let me solve to convert it.

I stroll to the shelves and pull off a large beaker and fill it halfway with water.  _ I’m going to do the bathtub trick. Thank you muggle elementary school! _ I place the giant bean in the water and write down how many milliliters it displaced. I pull it out and drop in a single bean...and I can’t tell any difference. Another timer goes off and I check my Valerian root stew and it’s a liquid black mess.  _ Nailed it. _ I count out nineteen more beans and drop them into the beaker and see it lifted the line up. My long division wasn’t as handy no at Hogwarts but I remembered enough to get the average volume of the bean and compared it to the giant wet mess dripping on the table. My engorged bean had about one hundred-forty times the volume as a regular bean. I needed twelve and that doesn’t divide evenly. I cut the bean in half and in half again.  _ That’s around forty beans. _ I go for broke and cut the piece in half twice more. I set aside one piece and take half of another slice. If I’m right that’s definitely between twelve and thirteen beans. That or I completely screwed up. Holding my breath I squeeze the juices out into my mixture and rocked out as much as I could in my last half hour.  


“Time’s up.” Snape waved his wand and all tables slid away from students. Snape made his way through the classroom. Insults flying left and right as potions were, literally, half-cooked and fraught with mistakes. Once at our table with Rowan and Merula, Snape gave Rowan the first look. “Skele-gro. Completed allows one to escape nasty accidents. No picnic itself though. Yours appears just below an acceptable mixture. Another twenty minutes and it could find it’s way to the hospital wing, Mr. Khanna. Stay and finish after class then give my regards to Madam Pomfrey.”

“Yes Professor!”  _ Rowan owes me for that tip! _

“Miss Snyde. Peaceful, I hope?” Snape leered at me, “Remember what is at stake for you both. Felix has reported lessened antics between you both. I pray that is for the better.” Snape reviewed Merula’s cauldron. “Can you tell me what color a finished Draught of Peace will be?”

Instinctively I cover Rowan’s mouth, I need any advantage I can get right now. Merula shot a look, “Turquoise blue, professor.”

“And what color is your potion?”

“Red, professor.”

“Correct. What next colors will it turn before completion?”

“Purple, grey, orange, white, and finally turquoise. Sir.” Her face eased and grew a slight smile. Probably thinking her victory was moments away.

“Precisely.” Snape turned without moving his head as if on a spinning platform. “Mr. Watkins, how long does Volubilius Potion take to brew?”

“Volubilius? I’m sorry I don’t know that, sir.”  _ What on earth is this? _

Rowan leaned over, “That’s a voice-changing potion.” I catch Merula snickering at my expense.

“Mr. Khanna is correct. A novice could make it in an afternoon. Consider that over the holidays.” Snape was going out of his way to mop the floor with me.  _ Hopes rapidly dwindling on passing. _ “Explain your table.”

“Yes sir. I know I didn’t have enough time to go through all the steps in order so I tried splitting it up to streamline the time. I figured with another half hour I could fully finish this in under the-”

“Is that so?”  


It took a moment for what I said to playback in my head. I just told Snape I could finish this advanced freaking potion. “Well, I think I’ve made good progress right now. It would be close.”

“Indeed.” Snape looked at the leaking halves and portions of the giant bean on the table. “That is not on the ingredients.”

“No sir. I was pressed for time and tried something different. I think-”

“You and Mr. Khanna will finish your potions. Mr. Khanna will earn twenty points for Slytherin for a successful potion. Your results rest on finishing in half an hour. Resume.”

_ Screw potions.  _ I start combining more ingredients. Dropping in seven squares of Valerian root. Bouncing back and forth stirring counter-clockwise. One hundred fifty ounces of asphodel root. More stirring both directions. I hit the orange timer to start my two and a half minute rest period and pace around the table holding my last piece of Valerian root.  _ Ten minutes? So much for needing half an hour. _ Rowan’s smile didn’t fit on his face and he glided across the room finishing his Skele-gro.  


Orange flashed. I drop in the root and wait.  


A robe draped over the cauldron blocking my view. “A correct draught will be?”

“Light pink. Pale.”  


“Walk away now and you will pass without any penalty. If you stay and it is incorrect you lose house points and will fail the exam.”

I look at the beans. Those stupid beans are the only thing I am not sure on. Did I cut straight? I could have weighed each side before cutting more to see if they were even. _ Why didn’t I weigh them first? _ I can’t not know. I hate not knowing. “I want to see, Professor.”

Snape lowered his arm and a light steam rose over a pale pink liquid. I can’t resist a gleeful shout. “If you needed the whole thirty minutes that would have doomed you. Learn to keep better track. You may not be this lucky next time.”

“Sir? Did I beat Merula?”

Snape didn’t say anything and turned around to shoo Rowan away from taking too many of his scarab beetles.

_ Good enough for me. _ I turn to hustle out the door and crash to the floor.  


“No running in my classroom. Dismissed.”

_ I hate Snape so much. _


	6. Christmas Side-Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post potions, Christmas coming, alliteration alert. Finally starting to see some of the interesting parts of Merula.

Several naps after the stress of potions later I gather with the gang in the Great Hall for our feast before half of them ditch for Christmas. Even Barnaby joins us. Between Rowan and Barnaby I can’t tell who has the bigger man-crush on Bill.

Dumbledore quiets the hall and introduces Flitwick and the Frog Choir. Right front and center is the messy haired Merula in matching robes with students she was definitely mocking half an hour ago preparing, if Tulip is to be believed.   


Bill leaned in to help everyone hear, “So I’ll be hanging out here over the break. Charlie will be going home to visit family. But a Prefect’s job is never done.”

“We should set up a duelling tournament and pit all the houses together.” Barnaby suggested for the third time today.

The sound of the choir rose and filled the room overpowering our conversation. I turned around and watched little Dennis swaying around to the notes. I still don’t completely understand why I think about what he’s thinking. Tulip’s rubbing off on me. Merula doesn’t sound bad either. She could insult someone while singing and it would be hard to be mad at her.  _ What did I just think? _   


Tulip tapped my leg, “Can you hear Dennis over everyone else too?”

“Yeah a bit if I focus in on him.”

“Where are you focusing?”   


“Okay, Tulip, you got me. I’m still trying to decide if that’s Flitwick’s hair or a wig.”

“Thinking about a prank then?”

“Not everything has to lead to a prank. But let’s put a pin in that.”

“That could hurt him.” Tulip smiled.

“I am insulted at myself for not being as witty as you.” I rest my elbows back on the table and grinned at all the crazy hi-jinks Tulip and Tonks have gotten into this year. I catch Merula staring back at me and my smile drops. She keeps her eyes on me, I think. I turn left and there’s nothing going on behind me.  _ She must be planning revenge on losing the competition. _ I ask Barnaby if he knew if Merula was staying over the break.

“Yeah, she stays every year. No one’s at her house anymore.”

“Sleep with one eye open. Got it.”

The singers finish and we are dismissed until January. Our group hugs and shakes hands with everyone. Everyone except Ben and Barnaby. Ben is still too scared to talk to him at all.

We retire back to our common room and Barnaby asks outright if I wanted anything for Christmas. “I’m not totally sure. I could have used a watch the other day.”

“Awesome. I can do that.” Barnaby stood next to me on the couch.

“Would you like anything in particular?”

“Huh? No, I’m good. But I know you sometimes talk to Hagrid. Do you ever see any of the creatures near the forest?”

“He asks me for help on all the most ridiculous things. Want me to put in a word for you so he tags you instead of me?”

“Like a game?”

“No, no.” I will never get used to his literal understanding of the world. “I mean if he comes to me with anything I can get your help or have him go right to you.”

“Yeah, that’d be great!”

“That’ll be my gift then to you. Merry Christmas.”

“What do you think Merula will want me to get her? She was forcing all the first-years and me to get her stuff if we were staying.”

“That does explain why the common room seems emptier this year. No idea. If I thought I knew Merula, that went out the window seeing her up on stage. She is tougher to read than a book on Ancient Runes.”

“I was thinking something green.”

_ Naturally. _ “You could give her a toad so she isn’t using Tulip’s all the time.”

“Do you think there are toads down by the lake?”

I have no idea if you need special types of toads for pets. Not my problem, “It’s cold, you may have to dig them out of the mud.” I personally think a weasel would better suit her. Or a rat. I bet she’s actually completely devoted to any pets and would be doting over it all the time.  _ Why am I thinking about kind Merula? May as well think about a compassionate Professor Snape. _   


I spend the next two days before Christmas mixing it up between scanning the library and shopping around Hogsmeade looking for gifts for the gang. I figure I owe them something after all the crap I put them through. It’s not their brother we’re looking for. Bill actually wants to be a curse-breaker so I’m off the hook for him.

I grab some extra potion ingredients for Penny and a fun little belt to hold tools and vials. I spot a prank stuffed wolf at Zonko’s. If it is squeezed hard it bites at you. Solid Tonks gift. Tulip could always use more dungbombs.

A brisk wind cuts through my jacket. The air felt ten degrees cooler walking up the steps to the courtyard and it felt peaceful. A pair of snowflakes danced around and spun away. The sun was setting, but the sky was nice and clear. Passing the front arch I walked into a curtain of falling snow. Ducking through I see another student perched up on an eagle statue.  _ Oh crap it’s Merula. I need to- _

“Hey, what do you want? Spying on me again?” Merula jumped off the eagle, skidding along the freshly-covered stones up to me with her wand aimed between my eyes.

“No, I was just coming back from, nevermind. No it had nothing to do with you.”

Circling around me, Merula peeked into my bag to gifts. “Nothing for me?”

“Last I heard you were milking the first-years of their treats.”

“Ugh, Barnaby. Just another pawn in your little game. Another person you can’t help but steal from me.”   


“You weren’t friends with Tulip last I checked.”   


“But you snuggled up to her all the same and tried to keep me from the frog choir. Your timing gave your motives away.”

“That was a favor to Tulip because of you. Because you went back on your promise with Dennis.” I square my feet as Merula stops behind me. “And it meant more to you anyway. Your mom-”

“You believed that?” Her laugh blew against the back of my head. “You’re such an idiot. You’ll believe anything.”

_ Did she lie to me?  _ I think through that duel on the training grounds.  _ No, there was sadness. And she was rougher out there _ . Hand in my coat holding my wand I twist around to see Merula is a step ahead. “I’m used to your lies. That wasn’t a lie about her.”  _ Oh man, she is defensive. I need to...do something. _ I slip the wand back into my coat. “I’m glad you told me about it. It matters more to you and, and you sounded way better than I ever could.”

“Obviously. You’re a trainwreck. Worse than a mandrake.”

“I think toads were a better choice.”

“You’re light-years away from sounding as good as a toad.”

_ Oh the burn. _ “Fair. Fair.” I could see Merula wasn’t lightening up. She could snap a spell at me at any point if she wanted.

A snowflake fell and balanced perfectly on the tip of her wand. Her eyes moved to the single piece of snow as it rocked left and right. Merula flicked her wand once and the snowflake caught the breeze to escape our tense situation.

“Did you?” I spin my finger towards the sky, “Make it snow? There’s a spell for that they teach here?”

“Ugh, no. No professor here, let alone the half-breed goblin.”

“So this was you. When did you learn this?”

“What’s it matter? You don’t know anything anyway.”

“You’ve said that before. Was that from your mom too?” I flip end over end across the courtyard and roll through a few inches of snow. Her spell likely saved me from a trip to Madam Pomfrey’s. Her first spell at least.

“Don’t ever speak about my parents!”

“I was trying to say this was a cool spell. Weather-changing spells are actually useful and I would like to learn them was all. Did she teach you any others?”

Merula narrowed her eyes, “There are plenty of spells they taught me that I could show you. Like the  _ Cruciatus  _ curse for one.”

“I meant cool spells, not ‘Deater’ spells.”

“Are you making fun of my mum?”

I could foresee eating more snow in my future, “Heck no. No, no, no. Pet name for those people, not…” I was digging a hole here. “Why cast this spell? By yourself I mean.”

“No one is supposed to be out here. I don’t need an audience to know that I’m the greatest witch.”

_ Why am I torturing her about this? It’s nearly Christmas, just be nice since there are no witnesses. _ “I know it’s dumb,” I catch her smirk, “but I still carry Jacob’s broken wand everywhere I go.” I fetch half of it from my inside pocket and toss it up once. “Is this ever going to help me again? Probably not. But it does keep me focused. He gave up his wand for these Vaults. It’s a reminder.” I look up noticing now the snow has stopped falling. The courtyard is still save for the two of us. “Do you want to make it snow again? I’ll leave you alone.”

Merula didn’t move.  _ Did I stun her without realizing? _ I give a wave and grit my teeth as my hand lifted too high. My ribs weren’t feeling as great as I thought. I’ll heal myself back in my dorm so she can’t see. Who knew Merula had a soft spot?   


* * *

Christmas day was just as decadent and pompous as always. Bill forgot that his parents sent an owl that they’d be visiting and so he was trying to give us lines to say to keep them from worrying too much about him and his role in helping to open the vault and save everyone from the ice. He went out of his way to forbid me from saying it was Bill that taught me those extra spells including my personal favorite,  _ Incendio _ , to melt the ice.

Everyone liked their gifts and they gave me a photo of us all together. It looked like it was done right after we saved Hogwarts from the ice in the great hall and I honestly don’t remember taking it, but it’s fine.

Like with everything, I notice even Merula made it into the background of the picture. By herself. I lean back to look past Penny and see Merula by herself again. No one at the Slytherin table was sitting by her. My chest tightened as an annoying feeling of guilt came in like cold flood of water.  _ I should do something.  _ Merula would have at least had Barnaby around, but he was tailing Bill as always.

I check the time and figure I have just enough room to hustle down to Hogsmeade and back before Mr. and Mrs. Weasley show up. “Hey guys, I forgot to wish Hagrid a Merry Christmas and thought he’d be here. I’m going to run to his hut real fast and be right back. No worries, Bill. I won’t leave you out to dry.” I bolt and kick the bench as I leave,  _ smooth as ever. _

I’m down in Hogsmeade before it dawns on me that no one will be open on Christmas. The Three Broomsticks was the only building showing any signs of life and unless Merula wanted a butterbeer or get dinner with me  _ HA! _ the chances of something to get here were slim.

“What’s got you in a hurry, dear?” Madam Rosmerta ushered me inside. “You look flushed. Everything alright?”

“Yeah, just feeling bad that someone is getting left out of Christmas. I know everyone’s closed around here, but I thought something from the music shop would have been nice? I’m not sure.”

“Why didn’t you say so? Nearly everyone in town comes here for Christmas something; breakfast, dinner, and everything between. Mr. Dominic Maestro runs the shop and he’s right there!”

Rosmerta escorted me over and within ten minutes I was walking into the music shop with Mr. Maestro able to get whatever I needed.

“Anything in particular for the lady?”

_ I hadn’t said who, but I’m not going to unpack that right now.  _ “She’s in the Frog Choir. I can’t go and buy her a toad, but something song-like?” I should have spent more time thinking about that.

“You can’t go wrong with a songbook. All the popular songs with chords and this one over here,” Mr. Maestro drifted to a rack of books, “Actually has an accompaniment for choir and going acapella with toads.”

“That sounds perfect.”  _ Perfect was too strong a word, but if I said that seemed okay it may come off insulting since this is supposed to be their day off.  _ “Thank you so much, have a wonderful Christmas!” I clutch the book to my chest and push through the snow back up to the castle.

I wasn’t planning on Merula leaving early and thankfully she hadn’t. I would have looked even more ridiculous trying to chase her around the castle with this songbook. After three minutes outside the hall reeling in my breathing I approach Merula and take a seat next to her. With a healthy four-foot gap between us of course. “I saw you were by yourself and no one, no matter how…”  _ Be nice! _ “No one should be alone on Christmas. Would you like to come to our table and have some dessert?”

“I think I’m about to throw up all my food.” Merula said as politely as ever. “You’re not going to go on about last night are you? I don’t need that today.”

“Actually, you said something last night and I wanted to follow-up on that.”

Merula pushed away on the bench and drew her wand when my hand started coming out from my robes. “Calm down. I actually got you a present. I didn’t wrap it though, so, surprise I guess.”  _ I could write a book on how to sweet-talk your enemies _ .

Merula took the book and held it out with her hand long after I let go. She set it far away on the table, looking convinced it was a prank. She leaned in and took in the gift. Opening a few pages and flipping through some songs.

“I don’t recognize half of them, but I’m sure you would and could probably make them sound pretty decent.”

Her purple eyes focused on the pages and went through nearly half the book before she acknowledged I existed. “It wasn’t a lie about before. Don’t make a fuss about it.”

“And the snow?”

“We did that together. Every Christmas holiday. It was the only spell that wasn’t a curse meant for you.” Merula’s eyes fogged up. She looked away from me and cleaned them off.

“Hey, are you sure you don’t want to come hang out with us? You’ve helped with the vaults too, in your own way.”

“I don’t want to be a part of your stupid club. I don’t want anything from you. Not your pity, not you stupid-”   


“Wait now. Keep the book. Torch it and laugh that I spent money on something if you want, but keep it either way. One of these times you’ll agree we have more in common than you think.” I go for broke and pat Merula on the shoulder before walking faster than when I’m late for Potions back to Bill and his family. 

I take a single look back some time later and see Merula gently swaying her head back and forth with a finger running along a page in the book. Not a bad Christmas for everyone. 


	7. Finishing Year 3 - moving it along

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get back into the swing of things, wanted to get onto the 4th year so honestly this chapter follows pretty close to the game. More stuff in year 4!

As with the beginning of the year, I catch Felix staring me down while eating in the Great Hall. I pocket a roll for later and follow him outside all the way to the training grounds. 

“Marik, I wanted to officially congratulate you on beating Merula with your potion exam. Unbeknownst to Snape, I had another reason for pitting you two against each other.”

“Personal amusement?”

“That was a given. No, we will need a new Prefect after I am gone and I had a hard choice between yourself and Merula.” Felix caught my expression, “Don’t roll your eyes at me!” He straightened up, “Neither of you two are good enough yet. You each have next year to really grow into the role and if we work hard now, you can be a real benefit to Slytherin as a whole.”

“So you want to groom me to be a good Prefect? You really think Snape will go for that?”

“Like Dumbledore, Snape appreciates results. But you have the hardest uphill fight to go to win his recommendation and that’s why you need to start now. For the next few months, we will meet out here every Thursday evening. I will teach you special spells, give secrets on other houses you can use to your advantage, and show you what it means to be worth belonging in the top house.”

“That sounds great.”  _ Lame. _ “So back out here Thursday then?”

“Yes, I have loads of jinxes to show you. From the Tongue-tying curse to  _ Oppungo _ and  _ Colloshoo _ . All kinds of things to help avoid trouble and get revenge.”

“I never say no to new spells. Thursday sounds great.” 

On the way back to the common room to put together my supplies for class in the morning I see Merula walking down a hall up by the wall like she wanted to avoid being seen. Only that little shock of orange hair clued me to her identity. I shadow her down to the library and peek between books as Merula eyes the Restricted Section.

Merula whipped an apple out of her robes and launched it over a dozen aisles. A loud thud followed by complaints of a stinkbomb correct my initial thought on what she was throwing. In the commotion, Merula jumped over the rail and disappeared into the dark corner of the Library.  _ What is she looking for? _

“Marik!” Rowan exclaimed behind me, “What are you doing here?”

“Shh!” Madam Pomfrey hissed from the other side of the Library cleaning up the mess.

“Merula is in the Restricted Section. Why do you think she’s in there?”

“Have you looked in there yet?”

_ No, I’m not allowed and I was looking everywhere else first. Why would I risk getting thrown out of the library looking there first?  _ “We’re looking for the Vaults, not curses.”  _ Oh. It’s that obvious isn’t it? _ “Rowan, humor me for a minute. Why is there a Restricted Section in the library?”

“For the older students and books too dangerous for general use?”

“When did they make a Restricted Section? Has it always been there?”

“No, they built that decades ago. I don’t remember when.”

“Uh huh...Do you think they built it there to hide the entrance to a Cursed Vault?”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“Yep. And Merula is trying to beat us to it. It’s late, send messages to everyone to meet here tomorrow right after classes. We’re going to find that Vault.”

“What about you?”

“I need to make sure Merula doesn’t get there first.” I run over to Madam Pince and rat out Merula’s trick.

“That little witch, I’d have her suspended from the library for the rest of the year if I could.” And with that she was off and in a flash was dragging Merula out by her hood.

Merula and I lock eyes. _ She knows. _ I meet her outside the library and confess my hand in foiling her plan. “But thanks for showing me where to look.”

“It’s sad you needed my help again. But that’s just because being a loser runs in your family.”

_ Christmas is past, gloves are off. _ “How’s that extra training with Felix going? Learn any extra spells? Oh wait, that’s me. If you weren’t such a pain I’d invite you to join.”

“There’s nothing Rossier and his half-rate family know that I wasn’t already born the best at.”

“I’m just getting tired of winning in every class. You’re slipping, Merula. You’ve lost your edge this year. Maybe you’re the best you’ll ever be now? Sad if it’s all downhill from here.”

A fire sprang in Merula’s eyes and with a swift kick she knocked me off balance and gripped my robes right by my neck. “What did you say?”

“I said you’re not as scary anymore. Even now. If you want to be on top again, you should work on your bite instead of your bark. Heck, you may as well come to practice with Felix. We meet Thursdays on the training grounds. Don’t be seen. I don’t want an unfair advantage over you. Outside my natural talent at least.” I fell back and whacked my spine on a bench.

“You flop better than me. I’ll give you that. Loser.” Merula spun on her heel and left me alone in the hallway.

Sure enough Merula tailed Marik on Thursday and announced her presence victoriously in front of Felix as if she had solved her own mystery.

Felix aimed his wand at Merula, “Who told you to be here? This isn’t for half-rate students.”

“I knew your little pet couldn’t be so close to decent at spells without some kind of help. Looks like I was right to follow him here.” Merula approached Marik and stood beside him. “Now how about putting that Prefect knowledge to good use and training me as well?”

“So you saw something suspicious and broke to rules to find out. I may have underestimated you Snyde.”

_ Curse me in the face I told her to be here. _ “Felix-” My body flipped over into bushes from Merula’s spell.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s a nobody. We come from important families. Make me the Prefect.”

“You both will have to continue to win the recommendation. This will be another round that will allow me to choose my replacement and appease Snape who was less than thrilled about my first choice.”

“When is Snape ever more than thrilled?” I quipped picking leaves off my cloak. “I don’t mind Merula being here since she is clearly so clever to find out about this secret training on her own.”  _ I am going to blow up her cauldron tomorrow. _ “Let’s just start and see who the better wizard is.” 

The next day I was able to gather everyone at the Three Broomsticks and hatch our plan to break into the Restricted Section and find the cursed vault. Bill already had access as a Prefect and a favorite of McGonagall’s. He would slip us in and then run interference out front to make sure no other students or teachers came by while we looked for the opening. Barnaby wasn’t fully won over even after talking and said he would need to talk to Merula about all this first. I knew he would spill our plans and there would be some showdown and Bill was going to allow Merula through to keep the fight away from Madam Pince’s ears. Tulip would be support to fend off any extra boggarts and Penny wanted to avoid boggarts and slow Madam Pince down.

I wasn’t planning on Merula and Ismelda showing up, but Barnaby finally came through and said he had been bullied enough by her and he didn’t want to feel like he was at home all the time and held the two witches off while we entered the vault and broke the curse.

Undeterred with another defeat, Merula finished the year attending each of Felix’s lessons and making every corner look suspicious for me. 

Note: I apologize for the quick wrap up of this year and the hiatus of updates. Life stuff and I wanted to move away from the play-by-play of the story and actually try getting to some of the Merula stuff again starting in the next school year/chapter.


	8. Year 4 Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting back in Year 4. Rakepick holds tryouts for assistants and naturally MC and Merula have to duel again.
> 
> Fun fact: I mixed up when MC can become a Prefect with Year 4 and 5. It doesn't change much aside from being easier to sneak out...but in all honesty students sneak out all the time so I hope I can get a pass on that one.
> 
> Thanks for reading and I'm up to chapter 12 now and will try to phase out the Prefect stuff until it works again for next year!

The sky is barely lit when I stumble off the Knight Bus with all my luggage for Hogwarts. The bed inside was worse than usual, but still better than dealing with mom the night before returning to school and listening about Jacob and how I’m going down the same path.

A peculiar old car pulls up to the front of the train station as I’m approaching. It looks as if someone took a polished up antique platter and Cinderella’ed it into a car. A boot kicked out the back door as soon as the vehicle stopped. 

Step-sister instead .  Should I be nice or mean? I don’t really have enough empathy to be nice, but I am smart enough to not poke a snake. “Hey Merula, I never got to say congrats on getting Prefect too. Maybe we can even mess with some kids together for once.”

Her eyes swept to me and I felt like it was my time to run so fast I lost a shoe. Merula made her way to the platform without looking back or shutting the door. Something didn’t seem right with her and I’m not completely sure I want to get involved in that, but knowing me I probably will anyway.

Everyone chatted on the train catching up from the summer and continued until they split to their house tables for the feast in the Great Hall. Rowan about his farm, Penny on seeing so many new places with her family and sister coming here next year, Tulip cooking up new pranks, Ben reading to himself in his room, and Bill getting the nerve to let his younger brother Charlie around him in public since another brother of theirs, Percy, was becoming the most annoying out of the Weasley bunch.  A heck of a feat.

Dumbledore introduced Madam Rakepick, a curse-breaker, to the school and warned students to be more careful than ever this year as the Cursed Vaults were serious business. Dumbledore’s eyes fixed on me and I understood his message was specifically for us. 

After the sorting ceremony and dinner I had to help file the newcomers down to our common room. The older Prefects held a quick meeting and we divied up rotations keeping an eye on the common room. Merula and I got stuck with the first week since we were new and it was the most popular time for first years to try and break the rules in the first couple days to push boundaries and get an edge on everyone.

I sat in a chair across from the door of the entrance while Merula leaned on the wall around the corner just out of sight. “Brats always think if they get by whoever is out front they are free.”

“And your plan is to jump out and scare them back to bed?”

“Or cut me in with whatever they are taking. Whichever I feel like.”

“Of course. How do you feel about that Rakepick woman?”

“They said she was a Gryffindor when she attended here. She doesn’t teach a class or anything and just wants to snoop around? Sounds as useless as Filch.”

I laughed at the characterization. “I figured you’d want to cozy up to get information on the vaults.”

“Going belly up to make someone happy? That’s more your thing, loser.”

The door to the common room opened and a pair of students walked out still in their pajamas. “Hey! No one out past hours. Get back to bed.” I saw one of the students was the sixth year Prefect. 

Merula must have noticed him too and thought he was sneaking out with a girl student, “This is the dumbest test. Get back before I curse you.”

The two didn’t acknowledge us and started towards stairs. Marik blocked their path and they slowly moved to avoid him. They didn’t fight back when he stuck his arm out to prevent them from walking past. “Are they asleep? What the heck is this?”

“I’m not playing this game.  Petrificus totalis!”  Merula cast her spell twice stopping both students. 

I pulled my clock from the grip of the frozen prefect, “Careful, that nearly got me too.” I looked at the rip in the sleeve. “Awesome, thanks.”

“Shut up and let’s float these losers back to bed. Take the boy.” Merula waved her wand and cast the levitation spell on the girl and took her back inside. 

The next morning at breakfast, all us prefects were summoned to McGonagall’s office. “It appears someone has cast a spell on some students. Students in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were caught asleep in the halls last night sleepwalking. They had no memory of where they were going and-”

Hagrid burst into the room carrying a student in his arms. Tulip. “Profesor. I foun’ anot’er of ‘yer students in th’ forest. She still asleep.”

I see McGonagall check over Tulip and push Hagrid out the door to the Hospital wing. Turning back to the rest of us. “That accounts for Ravenclaw. Were there any incidents in Slytherin last night?”

“Yes, professor.” I stated. “We had two students also try to sneak out that looked like they were sleepwalking.” 

“We caught them and got them back to bed.” Merula added.

“Very good. Were they present this morning at breakfast?”

Merula and I exchanged looks. Neither of us remembered them this morning. I whispered asking how strong she cursed them and Merula shushed me that it wasn’t an overly strong spell. “No, professor. We can look to see if they are still in their beds and let you know right away.”

“Please do. The rest of you. Not a word to the other students. Madam Rakepick may try to find these students, but only discuss with a Head of House. Report any other incidents to them.”

I caught up to Merula down the hall, her pace faster than normal. “Did you think that was weird? McGonagall didn’t want us to talk to Rakepick about the sleepwalkers. Looks like you aren’t the only one who doesn’t like her.”

We marched in silence and split up in the common room to our respective gender’s dormitory. The prefect was still asleep. He wasn’t frozen, just asleep. Merula confirmed the same about the girl sleepwalker. We found Snape in his classroom and he took the students up to the hospital wing. 

“I’m going to go with him to the hospital wing, too. Do you want to come?”

Merula gave her classic sneer. “No, you go fawn over Tulip.” 

Tulip isn’t even in the top three of girls I would actually date. Do I have a list? Maybe I should make a list. No, that’s dumb, just go check on Tulip. “She was your friend too and you sing with her toad so you kind of owe her. Later.”

Tulip wasn’t the only student in the hospital wing. Seven beds were filled with sleeping students. When I walked in, Madam Pomfrey was mid-conversation. 

“-each house. Where is the last one?”

I checked out the beds and saw they were paired by house color. Except Tulip was the only Ravenclaw. Where’d the other go?  Is one missing?

“Here is your missing student.” A voice sounded behind me. Madam Rakepick carried a student by and dropped him off next to Tulip. The boy was bleeding and his pajamas were muddy and torn. “He was attacked by some creatures in the forbidden forest when I found him, still asleep. Looks like I got here just in time. This clearly is the work of a Cursed Vault.” Rakepick turned around and saw me, “Wonderful timing, Mr. Watson. I could use your help.”

“Help with what?”

“With the vaults of course. I would have thought you were sharp enough to get that. I hope I wasn’t mistaken.” Rakepick circled around me like I was a carcass. “I’m putting a team together. Meet me out by the quidditch pitch after class this afternoon.”

Biting my tongue I turn and walk back to my dorm to get my books for the day. Rowan was encouraging of getting some lessons from Rakepick. 

Ben was far less enthused. “I don’t think you should see her. She’s, she can’t be trusted.” His face was paler than usual.

“Do you know about her?”

“I’ve read her biography and in the Daily Prophet. She’s not going to help you, she only helps herself.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I don’t want to talk about this. I have to get to my next class.”

Rowan noted his strange behavior. “Come to think of it after Dumbledore announced her being here he’s been more flustered than normal.”

“I think I’ll ask around about Madam Rakepick and try to see if anyone knows about her.”

“Good idea. You should ask some of the other professors like Flitwick and McGonagall who probably taught her.”

“Thanks, Rowan, catch you later. I should start getting ready before meeting her today.”

Walking out to the field I saw Bill and Penny walking together from the training grounds in the same direction as me. “Hey you two!”

“Hey Marik! Did Rakepick want to see you too?” Bill asked.

I didn’t realize this was another group event. “Yeah, I didn’t know she wanted the whole team, I was just with Rowan and Ben.” 

Coming over the last hill to the quidditch field I realized how wrong I was. Charlie, Merula, and Barnaby were standing with Rakepick. Charlie called over and greeted us noting he didn’t think Bill would be here and was embarrassed. 

“Don’t waste time with apologies.” Rakepick started. “Each of you was asked to come here on your own. I am looking for an assistant and each of you have shown potential based on what I heard about your adventures last year.”

“Even the Weasleys?” Meruld sniped.

“Weasleys are almost all strong wizards, whether you like it or not.” Rakepick outlined her plan to get into the forbidden forest and break the curse causing students to sleepwalk. “With these curses they always get worse. Students are already taking hours to wake up with Madam Pomfrey doing all she can. Soon we may see students injured or worse if we don’t solve this soon. As far as you all are concerned. We are going to have some trials to see who is the most capable to help me.”

Rakepick walked by each student and faced them off with a partner. Charlie was paired against Bill. Penny faced off with Barnaby. And naturally I had to beat Merula.  Rakepick knows about mean and the cursed vaults, but beating Merula happens at least ten times as often. “Weasleys, duel. The winner is who knocks the other over first.”

Bill began to say he’d go easy before Charlie whipped out his want and cast  Flipendo , but Bill blocked with  Protego . Bill sent off a knock-back jinx and Charlie fell down. “Sorry. Not like house rules here.” I could see Bill hesitate, but he talked about being a curse-breaker so often this must seem a golden opportunity for him.

Penny and Barnaby were given a different challenge. They had to cast the strongest spell they knew. Barnaby swaggered forward and faced a tree a hundred meters in the distance. He wound up like a baseball pitcher and made a throwing motion with his wand while shouting “ Incendio !” A fireball leapt from his want and flew almost all the way to the tree before hitting the ground and starting a small fire. He sprinted down and put it out before it got out of hand. “Sorry, I thought that was closer. My brothers usually do that with one of us in a suit and try to hit each other.”  Jesus this guy has the most insane family.

Penny slowed her breathing and closed her eyes for her turn. Holding her wand firmly in front of her and said “ Expecto patronum.” A spray of white light or fog came from the wand for just a moment before fading out. I didn’t know the spell but Bill and Rakepick looked extremely impressed so she may have won that round. 

“You two, duel. The winner brings me the other’s wand.”

Merula already had her wand out. Must have been just waiting for the signal. She knocked me back and then disappeared towards the team tents to the stadium. “Can she run away?”

“A real fight doesn’t follow any rules. Just bring back her wand by any means necessary.”

I approached the tent and barely had time to duck out of the way when Merula raced out on a broom. I ran inside and grabbed a school broom as well and chased her around the field. We had raced behind in flying class, but not with our wands or trying to hit each other off. Or at least not me trying to dismount her.

Merula smashed into my broom and pinched my hand. I slowed and fumbled to keep a hold of my wand and crashed into the ground. My ankle burned like it was hit with Barnaby’s fire and I quickly used  Episkey on myself. Merula taunted me from the air and shot spells down with little aim or worry, lavishing her upper hand. 

Following her path I got off a lucky shot and broke her broom. I didn’t think about her falling to the ground and instinct to catch kicked in. Pocketing the wand I raced below Merula as fast as I could knowing I went too far here. Bill saved the day with  Arresto momentum  stopping her as I slid on the ground with arms open to catch her.  I look like a fool now.

Merula scolded Bill and landed on her feet when he end the spell. Merula stumbled and fell down onto me causing us both to fall. She refused any help up and pushed off against me. I paused waiting for her to get back into the zone to resume, but Merula went right to Rakepick and gave her my wand that she had stolen from my robes. Sneering, Merula took her place next to Penny and Bill. 

“Interesting first class. I have much to consider. I will send you each owls if I want you to continue training further for my assistant. Dismissed.”

“Keep a closer eye on that wand, Watson.” Merula teased again. “Don’t be such an easy target.” She was enjoying her return to the top of their rivalry.


	9. Getting ready for the Celestial Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Setup to the ball. As if it's a question who our MC will eventually go with, but how to make that not sound ridiculous?

Weeks passed with no word from Rakepick and little acknowledgement in the halls or during dinner. More students were turning up missing and found in the forest as Meula and I found ourselves pulling extra duty trying to guard the common room door from sleepwalkers. It was even less help that Merula snuck off some nights or came back late after curfew to do her own thing leaving me with extra duty on our night’s watch.

Tulip was little help in explaining what happened and avoided the subject as much as possible. 

Rowan and I were researching some of the awful things found in the forbidden forest and coming up with ways I could sneak out. Flying seems to be the fastest way and after getting knocked down by Merula I paid extra attention in my flying classes. 

When Hooch suggested I join my house Quidditch team I balked at first, but Rowan had that glimmer of brilliance and suggested I join to get extra access to the team brooms and practice for when I plan to search for the vault.

Between Prefect duties, my actual studies, quidditch, and searching around for clues to the vault I was running on empty after another month and Halloween blurred right by. Soon posters went up everywhere about a Celestial ball Hogwarts was putting on for the first time in years and before I knew it Penny was dragging me into another one of her popular girl plans.

“Can you help elect me to lead the committee?” Penny asked once we were alone in the Artefact room.

“Don’t I need to be on the committee first?”

“Yes, but that’s just something you sign up for and have a sponsor. Bill already said he would do that.”

“Okay, but why do you want my help specifically? Why not any other Hufflepuffs?”

Penny tightened her lips and fidgeted with a braid. “I wanted to ask you. You’re my friend and you know I would do a good job and...you’re a Slytherin so you could be helpful.” 

_ I don’t really like how that came out, _ “Helpful how?”

Penny took a deep breath and gave me the rundown, “The girl trying to lead the ball right now is this girl Emily but there’s an actual election to setup the committee and make the plans and she’s older than us and popular and Bill used to date her and I need your help to find a way for me to win.”

“Oh,”  _ She’s just using me to do her dirty work _ .  _ Good thing I’m okay with that. _ “I could probably figure something out. When is the election?”

“Three days.” Penny lunged and gave me a hug. “You’re the best! I’d talk to Bill but I’m not sure where he is with all this. I think he said he’d be in the Great Hall right now.”

“Now? Sure, now.” 

Penny clapped and pulled me halfway to Bill before running off to keep her hands clean.

Sure enough, Bill was sitting alone in the Great Hall having a sandwich. “Hey Bill, I heard you and Penny were signing me up for the Ball party thing?”

“Sorry, Penny’s…”

“She’s a lot. I know.”

“I was going to say really excited and had some good ideas.” We shared a laugh. “But just like I told her Emily’s got a lot of friends and they’ll probably vote for her.”

Bill and I went back and forth on the merits of different ways to influence the election. Bill was not on board with any pranks on Emily or any inappropriate use of Tonks or Tulip. 

“I do really want to help Penny though, she’s great.” Bill took a quick bite of his sandwich and mulled it over in silence for a moment. “Have you thought about taking anyone to the ball yet?”

“I can honestly say I haven’t. I’ve been distracted with other stuff I guess.”

Bill leaned in closer, “Were you thinking about Penny by any chance?”

_ Should I ask Penny? I guess we could go together. She’s a good friend and we’ve gone through some crazy times together. But I could say the same with Tulip or Tonks and probably have more fun with them.  _ “She would be one of the few people I would consider asking if I asked anyone, but I’m not completely focused on her as a date. What about you?”

“Me and Penny? No, why?”

“I meant have you thought about anyone, but now I’m wondering about you and Penny. Do you want to take Penny?”

Bill sulked back a bit, “I’m not sure. Emily still rubs in a little that we aren’t together anymore and has been acting a little more like she is in your house instead of mine. But also Penny and I haven’t really had a lot of time together.”

“I’m going to let the house thing go. What about hanging out together before Rakepick’s crazy duel thing? You were walking together then. No other walks or talks or things that rhyme?”

“That was the only time. We bumped into each other coming out of the castle and it was obvious where we were both going so we talked about what kinds of spells we could learn or the trouble you’d get into or if you’d be there at all and it circled around the vaults and our time with you, not really each other.”

_ I feel bad for this guy. He’s a great duelist and smart, but can’t catch a break. Must be the whole ‘Weasley’ name holding him down.  _ “I get that. But you could always ask her to Hogsmeade or something and see how that goes. It doesn’t always have to be the only time you see her is when I’m trying to kill us all. I don’t mind that myself, but I get you’re a person too.”

“Thanks, Marik. Maybe we can try that sometime.”

An idea hit me for the election. “How about this; I’ll set up a date, or just a hangout, whatever you want to call it, between you and Penny for this weekend since it’s one of the ones we can go down to Hogsmeade if you agree to approve a few more people for the committee so that when the election comes we’ll just have stacked the deck in our favor. Deal?”

“McGonagall’s going to give me an earful. But I think Penny would do a better job anyway.”

“Means to an end. Let’s not question it. Sounds good.” I scratched a few names down on a parchment from my bag and he said he would get the list approved and on the committee for the vote this week.

On Friday afternoon everyone gathered in the library for the election. Emily and her half dozen friends were waiting patiently and seemingly unaware of Bill, Penny, me plus the ten new additions to the committee coming to join them. Ben, Rowan, Tulip, Tonks, Barnaby, and some first and second year students I had strongly suggested show up filed in and after ten minutes arguing about “the rules” we were able to crown Penny the new leader.

“Thank you everyone for joining us and agreeing to help with all the decorations. With this much enthusiasm we should have the best Celestial ball ever!” Penny ducked after Madam Pince scolded her volume. “Let’s put the past behind us and we can meet in Flitwick’s office tomorrow at 2pm to start preparing. Thanks everyone and see you there.”

I felt some angry eyes bore into my head and to be honest, I didn’t blame them. “For the record, I didn’t read the fine print on what being on the committee would mean either.”  _ That didn’t win me any favors. I don’t want to give up an afternoon out of the castle either. _

Thankfully Flitwick only stayed around a few minutes after bringing out all our options for the ball and a simple majority forced Penny to let us use magic to sort, cut, arrange, and stow away our work so that we only needed one more Saturday next week before we could coast to the ball.

“Hey Marik,” Penny said, catching my sleeve. “Could you hang back a minute?” We waited for everyone to leave and sat in our normal spot for class. “I wanted to ask if you’ve thought about bringing anyone as a date.”

“Hey, funny thing about that, Bill and I were going to talk about this whole ball stuff and you should come along. He said he’d meet there after running back to his dorm real quick. Interested?”

Penny started reading my expression like she does when she thinks she isn’t the one in control. “I’m not sure I get-”

“Here I don’t like playing games, Bill wants to ask you but he’s still a little sad about his last break-up and wishes he had a chance to chat with you some more since you seem like a great person, and you are I just mean to him, and all that. So don’t say I let the cat out of the bag or do, but that’s kind of a thing I thought we could do and see how it goes?”

“So you don’t want to go with me?” Penny seemed more shocked than hurt.

“I like you, yeah, I’d take you too and that’d be fun. I guess I was looking at this as a more ‘date-like’ thing and we aren’t that. Besides I would definitely not be as into everything as you and that’s just my snarkiness clashing with you actually being a decent person.”

Penny agreed to the drinks with Bill and once everyone had sat down and we starting blasting how bad Rowan and Ben were at decorating Penny and Bill were able to really talk more about something other than their adventures with me. 

I spotted Merula pickpocketing a Ravenclaw kid I didn’t know and sneak out. I hadn’t pushed her buttons in a while and figured it was as good an excuse as any to leave these two and see what happened.

I caught up with Merula outside not far from the inn, “What’d you manage to get?”

Merula spun and threw a rock she was hiding in her hand.  _ Was she playing with a rock or just waiting to throw that at someone? _ “You, ugh. What do you want?”

“I was just wondering if you snatched anything good.” I smiled but wasn’t met with any openness. 

“Buzz off, go hang out with that Dime friend of yours.”

“I feel you have fought her enough to know her name and also surprised you know muggle currency enough to make that joke. But I’m the one ditching her for the first time in a week.”

“Trouble in Geekville?” 

“Are you just reaching nowhere for a fight? I know I’m not the one to ask, but are you okay?”

Merula flung another rock at me, but this one exploded because it wasn’t a rock but a stinkbomb and slithered off down the path.

I warned anyone making waving or making nose-related gestures at me to be careful and washed up back in the dorm. It was almost late and I was surprised no one said they had seen Merula around. I snuck out and checked my usual places for her including Jacob’s secret room, the Artefact room, Snape’s office area, and the library. I remember Ben saying he caught Merula wandering around some of the corridors last year after all the boggart madness but with all the random rooms it was a crapshoot to find her around here.


	10. Barnaby's Wingman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merula's mean and has like one friend. Is it Marik's fault that she's the one person is who Barnaby wants to take as a date?

Ben and Rowan were worrying about not looking cool or having dates and being very distracting during a potions review in the library. 

“What if no one wants to go with me? I don’t know if I’ve talked to a girl who isn’t a teacher this year.” Ben stated.

I clapped back to him, “Honestly, how many people in general have you talked to besides us? Do you feel like your social life is really going to change after this one night?”

“Well, right no, but it’s embarrassing to not ask anyone, but it could be worse to ask the wrong person and get turned down. What if they make fun of me for asking?”

“Ben, you need to work on that confidence and I think we should try talking to Professor Flitwick about that AFTER we finish studying for potions. Does that sound okay?”

“Yes, I can do that.” Ben put his head back into his book and wet his quill again to continue writing notes.

“Also, we need to have the best outfits.” Rowan chimed in. “My older brother said that if you look good, you feel good and girls will dance with you.”

“I’m sure knowing how to dance helps. Have either of you danced?”  _ I shouldn’t have opened that can of worms. _ I spent the next half hour calming Ben and Rowan down and hustled to Flitwick’s classroom to see if he could help with Ben’s anxiety. 

Sarcasm and wit are some of the qualities I appreciate the most and Professor Flitwick played Ben like a drum with a “confidence charm” so he would act like the opposite of his usual character. Rowan suggested meeting his friend Andre to help design their outfits for the ball and Ben tried to moonwalk, or whatever he called it, out the classroom. It looked terrible, but he didn’t care at all.

Two days before the ball Barnaby flagged me down in the common room and asked about my thoughts on taking someone to the ball. “I saw Bill is taking Penny. Tonks and Tulip turned down everyone I saw ask them, and me twice. What about you?”

“I’m happy with our friendship just the way it is.” I replied.

“Me too, but who are you taking to the ball?”

“Still just me being me. It looks like a bunch of our class is just going to have fun and not going with dates.”

“You helped get Bill and Penny together right? That’s what Rowan said when I talked to him.”  _ I can only imagine how painful that talk must have been for Rowan. _ “Could you help me with asking someone out too?”

“Definitely. Can you show me another one of those Lee family spells you and your brothers use to jinx each other?”

“Of course. But can it be after the ball because that’s tomorrow.”

“Yes, Barnaby, we can learn the spell after the ball. Who were you wanting to ask?”

“Ismelda.”

“Where?” I spin around with my wand out waiting for a curse to come at me.

“I think in the dorm. I want to ask her to the ball. I wasn’t sure how to do that without her turning me into a lizard. Can you help?”

_ I’m not going to unpack why Barnaby wants to ask someone who is mean and cold considering his family situation. _ “Tomorrow we can ask Professor Flitwick for a really strong shield charm and maybe I can get Merula to go along with that. I’ll probably ask during potions or something tomorrow because I have no idea where she is again.”

“Merula usually visits her mirror room at night. She just stares at it all night.”

“What mirror room? In a bathroom or this girls’ dorms?”

“Maybe, but her mirror room is down four classrooms on the right from the library. I followed some Ravenclaws last year and found it, but then Merula kicked me out when I showed her.”

_ Geez Merula’s vain _ . “Is it a nice mirror? On second thought never mind. Not my problem.” I jumped off the couch and levitated a sleepwalking student up into the cage we set for the cursed to keep them safe until morning.  _ I probably should be more worried about this and I wish I wasn’t getting roped into social stuff. _ “I’ll check with Merula tomorrow. Get some sleep and I’ll figure something out tomorrow to help out.”

“Thanks, Marik, you’re the best. And I’ll think about some of the worst spells my brothers have used to share if you get her to say yes. Night!” Barnaby hopped off to bed leaving me to guard the fort all night again.

Merula was punctual to potions as usual. She’d never upset Snape. I pulled the chair next to her and whispered before class started, “Can I talk to you about the ball tomorrow?”

Merula recoiled, “Why?”

“Barnaby wants to ask Ismelda and is scared, naturally, so I wanted to ask if you thought Ismelda would go along since you all used to hang out last year.”

“You mean before you stole him? And you think you can get Ismelda too from me?”

“No, no, no. She’s one-hundred percent on your team, you can keep her. But you know Barnaby and he’s not a bad guy. Do you think she’d do it?”

Snape whacked the desk with his wand and commanded attention the entire lesson. I wrote a note to Merula to meet me in the courtyard after lunch and to bring Ismelda. She dropped it in a cauldron of poison after reading it. Classy.

Barnaby rocked back and forth on his feet as the sun started to set in the courtyard. We’d been waiting for almost two hours and were losing hope the girls would show when two black and green shadows finally came out of the castle.

“So I know we’re getting short on time with the ball tomorrow and all. Ismelda, will you go with Barnaby?”

Ismelda spun to Merula, “This is what you wanted me to go along with for a prank?”

“Of course.” Merula kept her gaze on us, “Agree now and leave him alone in the dorm tomorrow. Whether or not they know doesn’t matter because boys will be boys and hope.”

“I’m not doing that.” Ismelda walked over the Barnaby, then looked at me. “I’ll go with Barnaby if you go with Merula.” 

I looked at Ismelda, then Merula, then Barnaby who mouthed the spell  _ Relashio _ at me again, then Merula once more. “Sure. I’ve got my suit and everything already. Merula, you’ll need to be dressed up too.”  _ Please call my bluff. If she agrees I’m guaranteed to end up in the hospital wing. _

“This wasn’t the plan.” Merula stomped. “I’m not anyone’s side date.”

“I’m not going with anyone else, Merula.”

“Yeah, like you won’t try to ditch me the second we walk in.”

“That’s further than you were suggesting a second ago with leaving us alone in the common room.”

Barnaby stepped between us, “We’ll all go together. That’s easy right? And stay together for a while or something. Whatever we do you do. Drink, dance, sit…”

Merula cut in, “You don’t have to list everything we do, we get it.”

I swear Ismelda almost smiled. It wasn’t a scowl at least. “Meet us in the common room thirty minutes before the ball starts. You can escort us to the ball.”

“Deal!” Barnaby gave a thumbs up to me not realizing that was an “after the girls leave” thing to do.

“See you tomorrow, Barnaby needs to teach me a new spell now.”

“I’ll warm Madam Pomfrey you’ll be joining her soon.” Merula cackled walking away with Ismelda.

Barnaby, Rowan, and I got ready together in our dorms and made sure we looked as normal and decent as possible. Any hair or shoelace out of place was asking for taunting from Merula and I wasn’t going to give her the edge tonight.

Once we finished Rowan sprinted out to meet Ben, still rocking his confidence charm and ready to “bust a move” as he said. Ben had really gone off with songs from the muggle world though I’m still pretty sure Beastie Boys is a wizard band.

Barnaby moved from sitting on the couch to standing behind it and even leaning on a table trying to look his best. It was endearing but seemed like wasted effort on Ismelda, but I’m not here to judge. Not too much at least.

Ismelda came out from the dorm first and I guess I thought she would show more of her face, but she kept that look going and had a cool spiderweb-look going on with the top of her dress. Merula came in after, slower and less confident than normal. She and Ismelda both must have spent time straightening their hair because even the little shock of orange was tamed and resting to the right of her part. Merula was in a long slim dress that fit nicely. She had on gloves that ran up past her elbows. Merula looked like she wanted to remind everyone she could still take them in a fight with her arms and shoulders showing. It wasn’t a bad look though. 

“You look great, Ismelda.” Barnaby walked up and offered his arm to walk her to the ball. He looked back at me, “Come on, you both have to copy.”

_ Have Merula and I ever touched and it not been while fighting?  _ I stepped a few feet from her and offered my arm. “For what it’s worth you look nice too.”

“If I added that to my potion’s exam my grade would almost be at low as yours.”

I held my hand in front of my face, “These two want to go together but can’t say so themselves. Just go with it for tonight. Truce?”

“Truces are for people who know they already lost.”

We followed Barnaby and Ismelda out into the hallway, keeping a few paces back. “Yeah, I lost this one. You look better than me and I’m also sure your wand is within reach so no funny business from me tonight. Doing a nice thing for a friend.”

Merula pulled her arm from me, “Is that supposed to be a joke? I’m just a pity date? You don’t think half the school wanted to ask me to this stupid ball?”

“I think half the school may want to skip the ball if they think you’re going. You terrify them and you like that. But no, I wasn’t trying to be mean. I still stick with what I said first year that we don’t have to fight all the time. We have plenty of other crazy things going on and I think like last year if we put our heads together we would do better than apart.”

“Like how you don’t know where to go searching in the forbidden forest?”

“Do you know where the vault is?”

“Rakepick has taken me out once or twice looking for the vault and we’re getting close. Jealous?”

_ The goal is to be friends tonight for Barnaby. _ “Yes, I am. You win again.”

“I like that.” Merula looped her arm in mine, “Keep that up and maybe you’ll make it through tonight alive.”

“In that case I’m glad you’re with me?”  _ That didn’t come out right. _ “I’m glad...something. I’m glad we’re not fighting right now.”

“You can stop talking now.”


	11. Celestial ball with Merula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marik and Merula get to the ball and it's somewhere between decent and awkward for both of them.  
An interesting room is found at the end that explains Merula's random outings in the middle of the night.

We walked into the Great Hall and even though I helped get some of this setup it was cool to see it all lit and the decorations floating around. 

“Boys, go get us some drinks please, we’ll get a table.” Ismelda slowly took her arm off Barnaby and I am learning new things about everyone today.

Barnaby was smiling more than ever and asked for any tips on dancing. “It’s not like a fight, so careful getting physical I guess. Not exactly my expertise. That’s not a skill needed for busting curses.”

“Well I want to ask her to dance. She’s really funny you know.”  _ I didn’t know. _ “On the next slow song we’ll ask them, okay?”

“That is a thing we can do.” I took my two drinks and followed him back to the table. My right arm itched a little where Merula was holding and I wasn’t positive if I was imagining she jinxed me or if she jinxed me with something. 

Thankfully the music was a little faster while more students filled in the Great Hall so we didn’t have to leave the table yet. Merula and Ismelda took turns taunting couples and laughing at anyone dancing. 

When Ben placed his hands on my shoulders I nearly leapt out of my skin, “Hey Marik, glad you and your dates could join us. Rowan told me you invited Merula and I wanted to say I too like to live dangerously. See you guys on the dance floor.”

“What was that?” Merula asked with her face frozen in awe.

“Yeah, Flitwick gave him a fake charm to boost his confidence and I think he’s really buying into it.” 

“You’re joking. That’s the best trick I’ve heard for that loser.” Merula looked and saw Ben was already getting people to give him room on the dance floor to show off. “I’m going to go tell him right as he’s in the middle of dancing so everyone laughs.” Merula left the table and slowly walked towards Ben giving him time to get into his freestyle routine.

“I’m going to go stop or save one of them. Be right back.” I followed Merula, weaving through a crowd of students circling around Ben. 

“Hey dweeb, your charm is fake!” Merula shouted at Ben.

Unfortunately,  _ fortunately?,  _ Ben didn’t hear her but saw her arm outstretched and took her pointing at him as an invitation to bring her in. Before I could get to the inner wall of the crowd Ben was dancing around Merula and everyone started laughing.  _ I think they’re laughing at her, Ben doesn’t care at all right now. She’s going to kill someone. _

I take my wand out from my jacket pocket and hold it steady next to me. Merula’s fists are clenched and she looks ready to play bash the Gryffindor. I wait for Ben to spin around facing away and give the command, “ _ Accio glove. _ ”

Merula couldn’t fight the spell and drug her heels across the floor over to me. I caught her wrist before she could punch me and pulled her close, “Don’t kick me and just spin with me out of here.” I wrapped my left arm with my wand around her waist and side-stepped back into the crowd. 

We got caught halfway back by Penny and Bill, “Marik!” Penny’s smile winced at the sight of Merula, “Thanks again for all your help with the ball.”

“Thanks for everything, mate.” Bill nodded. 

The lights dimmed and the music slowed. “The first slow song, come on Bill, let’s go.” Billed turned to Penny and they started swaying back and forth. 

I turned to Merula and just about headbutted her. My arm was still on her waist and there was no distance between us. “Crap, sorry. I just didn’t need to see that.”

“I didn’t want to see you that close.” Merula sniped. “You jealous?”

“No?”  _ I don’t think so _ . “I guess I’d rather talk to you then watch them? And I thought you’d be glad I saved you from whatever was going on with Ben.”

Merula rolled her eyes, “Ugh, thanks. Back up and give me some space-”

“Sorry, we had to catch up to copy you.” Barnaby smiled. He had Ismelda by the waist and held her other hand and dove right into dancing as well. I definitely caught Barnaby giving a thankful thumbs up again behind Ismelda’s back. I took Merula’s left hand and rocked back and forth.

“Don’t look now but I think Ismelda may actually like Barnaby. I think they didn’t want to dance unless they saw us dancing.” I laughed a bit at the follow the leader game going on.

“We’re not dancing.”

I moved her right hand up and she placed it around my side on my back. “You’re moving back and forth with me right now, it’s basically dancing. And I think you owe me this after going off and dancing with some other guy.”

“Boys are so sad.” 

“You say that, but you’re not stopping.” 

Merula pulled her hand free. “I can leave you right now.” 

“I know. You can go whenever you want.”

“Maybe I will.” 

I“Or you can just stay. This isn’t half-bad.” I held my open hand out.

“That’s because I’m the good half.” She said, taking my hand again.

“Lucky me then. I’m not Ben but I’m not the worst dancer ever. It’s pretty hard to mess this up.”

“Oh my god, why do you always have to keep talking?”

“Distraction? You haven’t left yet. I think as long as I get you to roll your eyes at what I say you’ll maybe stick around.”

“Boys are so sad.”

“I guess you’re right.” 

“Why shouldn’t I just stomp your foot and storm off in front of everyone?”

“Well you actually look nice tonight.” I saw fire in her eyes again, “Not just tonight, but just, you put in effort and it shows and that’s cool. And I really like your dress.”

“So you just want girls to barbie up for you?

“No. If you were just in regular robes I’d dance with you too.”  _ What? _ “This is like a time-out from everything else. Don’t you think so?”

“None of this matters to you? It doesn’t count? What kind of thing is that to say?”

“There’s no points. No one to impress. No team. Just,”  _ yeah this is going to sound as dumb outloud, _ “just you and me right now. I like it.”

Barnaby gave me a nudge, “Copy, dude.”

We looked and he had his arms around Ismelda and they were hugging and moving to the slow music. “I’m not,” I looked at Merula, “So is this a time-out?”

“Whatever.” 

Slow dancing with Merula. Things I would not have guessed when I met her as a first year. The downside to being closer was that it wasn’t easy to keep talking when you can’t look at each other. Half of her communication is by facial features and the ratio between how mad and annoyed she looks. 

When I didn’t speak I had time to think. And I’m not sure what I’m thinking at this point. I fumbled for something to say after a minute. “I didn’t even know your hair would stay straight.” I looked at her orange patch, “Why do you have the little orange bit?”

“What are we spilling our guts to each other?” Merula pushed back and ran her hand over her hair. “We’re not friends, you’re my pity date for Ismelda. You’re such an idiot.” Merula walked off the dance floor. _What was that reaction? Was she pissed and I just gave her a reason? Did she catch herself having a good time?_ _I should probably go apologize or something._

I didn’t see her at the table. I walked to the front of the hall by the entrance and saw Tulip and Tonks. Tulip said she saw Merula leave but didn’t talk to her to know where she went. “Did I really mess up this bad?” Something made me need to seek her out. I hustled down to the common room but no one had seen her. I went out to the courtyard and up to the common balconies and even asked a girl to check a bathroom. I was getting obsessed with figuring out where this witch ran off too. 

She wasn’t in Jacob’s room destroying anything and I was at my wit’s end. Barnaby had said something about a mirror room. “Library, four or five doors down on the right.” I walked up to the fifth door and it was empty. Backing up a classroom I slowly opened the door and saw Merula standing in front of a large mirror touching her hair again.  _ Never comment on girls’ hair again. _


	12. A Familiar Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what Merula has been doing sneaking off in the middle of the night for the last year.

I knock and announce my presence. The neutral atmosphere was gone and she furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean to piss you off.”

“How’d you know I was in here?” 

“Barnaby said you came here. What’s the deal with the mirror?”

“Nothing, get out!” 

_ Her makeup is smeared a bit. Oh man was she crying? _ “Hey, timeout on all the other stuff, are you okay?” I’ve never seen her sad. 

“I don’t need your pity.”

_ Walking into a snake pit here. _ I ignored her warnings and walked close again like we were going to dance, “I know you don’t need anything. But, just be real and tell me what’s up?”

“Your stupid brother had a secret room, this is mine. Get out.” 

“Well by that logic I should get to rummage through it like you did his.” 

Merula pushed me back until I hit the wall and held her wand at my throat. “This doesn’t concern you.” 

“Does this have to do with the Cursed Vaults? Is this one of those clues you and Rakepick found?  _ Lumos!”  _ I pulled my wand up to Merula’s face and blinded her for a moment. 

I shrugged off her grip and ran up to the mirror and dropped my wand looking in. “Jacob?” My brother was in the mirror. Was he trapped? Was this her secret for so long? Barnaby said she was here last year. I snatched my wand off the floor and held it at eye level towards Merula, “Why’s Jacob trapped in here?”

“Geez, you would see him wouldn’t you?” 

She didn’t get how serious I was, “ _ Petrificus totalis!”  _ Her body stiffened and fell back, “ _ Wingardium leviosa!” _ I lifted her body up to the ceiling, “I will drop you, right now, if you don’t answer me. I’m not playing Merula. This is for real. Tell me what’s going on.” I hold her steady and pick her wand off the ground before setting her down and releasing the spell. 

“Give me my wand, Watson.”

“I swear I’ll blast you across this room ten times over. What is this mirror and how is Jacob trapped in it?”

“He’s not there. Nothing’s there you idiot. It’s just a dumb thing that shows you what you want. Now give me my wand back.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well you’re dumb, so no surprise there. I caught some Ravenclaws doing a hazing thing with younger students in here to find out what they want most. They got it from some hidden room full of stuff. I don’t know where it came from but it has nothing to do with your brother.”

_ It would make so much sense for her to lie to me about this. She always wants to just mess with me _ . “Prove it, what do you see?”

“Get over yourself. I’m not telling you.” She stopped when I kicked over a chair. “Fine. Calm down.” Merula’s eyes darted to the mirror and back. “I see me breaking a curse and everyone cheering for me.”

“Liar. You wouldn’t be sneaking off a couple times a week for that.”  _ I know what I would come here for. I look back and see Jacob waving and smiling at me like nothing had happened in the last nine years.  _ “Do you see-”

Merula tackled me. That’s what I get for being distracted. She had me pinned and one hand already grabbing at each wand. “You don’t know anything!”

“I can’t even be mad at you can I?”  _ Of course it’s her parents.  _ Marik could clearly see her eyeliner was off and her eyes were a little red. “I give up. Take your wand.” 

Merula stomped my ankle getting up. I deserved it after my first reaction. She didn’t move away but was wary as I got up. I’m not sure why, but I felt bad for her. “Look, I’m going to say the wrong thing and I know you don’t care about my stuff, but I sort of get it. My brother’s gone and I’m trying to figure out what the heck happened and on some dumb level I feel like if we found him or knew if he was alive or not it would help with my family and all that. Both your parents are gone and that sucks. I don’t know how much that sucks. My dad is never around on purpose and that’s not worse but it’s different and sucks too. But, yeah, screw everything I guess. I’m sorry.” 

I didn’t even think about going in for a hug until it was already happening. Merula didn’t stab me or react much at all at first. But her hands grabbed the back of my suit eventually and we just had a crappy moment together. Several moments. I’m sure we were both waiting for the other one to shift and take a cue to stop, but we were both too stubborn to move. 

I try to go with the flow a lot. When I’m around Bill I feel braver, Penny makes me grow a conscious for a bit, Tulip makes me manic, and Ben I just feel uneasy around because he’s a nervous wreck. With Merula I hardly felt any different... _ that’s not right... _ around Merula I am reactive. I still feel like me and I’m reacting to her actions. With my friends I’m sort of absorbing their energy and taking on a bit of those traits. This past year or so though I’ve had moments like this where Merula’s not trying to hurt or humiliate me and I feel like I’m connecting.  _ Maybe she’s willing to open up about her baggage finally? _

When I finally stepped back I couldn’t tell if she was feeling any better. “You hear about my stuff all the time. Could you tell me about your parents?”

“We aren’t friends now, you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Most of the time I think I’d agree with that. If you don’t want to talk, do you just want to sit and stare at the mirror for a bit? Do they ever talk back?”

“No they don’t talk back, and don’t talk to the mirror either. That makes you look pathetic, more than usual.”

“That’s fine. I’m just happy to see him. We don’t have any pictures at the house left of him. It made mom and dad too upset.” I sat in front of the mirror and tugged Merula to sit down next to me. 

I didn’t wonder at all what everyone was up to at the ball. I got to see Jacob and remember what I was trying to focus on here at Hogwarts. I’ve been too distracted lately and really need to get back into hunting for these vaults. Merula already told me she’s been working with Rakepick and searching the forest. Maybe Jacob knew something about that one too and it was in his room. 

_ What’s Jacob even like now? Would he still be his overzealous self or have these vaults turned him into someone else?  _ I got lost in wondering all types of “what ifs” and ways I’ve screwed up and not found him yet. 

Minutes or hours could have passed, I honestly don’t know. I leaned back and accidentally put my hand on Merula’s. I had forgotten she was here for a minute and lost in her own little world. I squeezed her hand and said we should probably head back soon. 

“Just leave. I want to stay longer.” She didn’t break eye contact with the mirror.

I got up and pretended to leave the classroom. Merula never looked my way and didn’t see I opened and shut the door before crouching behind a desk.

Merula stood in front of the mirror and frizzed up her orange hair. She looked close at the mirror and twisted to get that section just as messed up as it usually was. “I’m sorry for him. And for being late. I made this dress.” Merula pivoted around, “I thought it was like your wedding photo but I don’t know if it’s the same.” She patted down a crease at her knee and was silent for a few minutes. “Yes, I’ll send an owl to her and ask if she’s heard from you. Have you gotten any of my owls?” 

_ I’m pretty sure they don’t accept owls at Azkaban _ . I was shocked at how deep Merula was in her fantasy. That fire I felt to talk and stare and be with Jacob had a bucket dumped over it if it could do this to me. 

“We had a dance today. All the pureblood boys asked me to go. I took that Watson boy to make them jealous and then he followed me here.” Merula’s pauses were infuriating like I could only hear half of a conversation that wasn’t actually happening. “No, he’s not a pureblood, I wouldn’t ever, he’s just useful to be around. I need to stay close and beat him to the cursed vaults so I can get you out.” Merula sat back down and listened to silence. “Madam Rakepick thinks I’m the top witch like you said she would. I am practicing nonverbal spells. We think we know where to look next for the cursed vault and should be able to break it over the Christmas break. She said that was the best time since many creatures don’t like the cold.”

As I waited for her to talk I kept trying to wrap my head around this girl. She hates everyone, values power and has the standard thick wall of anger. But she was sharp and really good at school and clearly looks more than half-decent.  _ Is this what I get for making fun of Barnaby? _

After long periods of silent staring and short snippets of conversation Merula stood and wished her parents goodnight. I crawled around the desk as she passed to avoid her line of sight and another minute so she would be gone from the hall when I left. 

Mrs. Norris or not I sprinted to the opposite stairwell and managed to beat Merula back to the common room. Panting, I kicked Rowan out of the couch and sunk down to act as casual as possible when she walked in.

Merula walked in with the same level of grumble that hangs over her on a regular day and nagged at me for ruining her night before starting off to bed. I sprung from the seat and took her hand. “Hey, are we still in the time-out from earlier? I want to say something, but, I don’t know.”

“Just say it, loser.”

“If I ruined your night, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect to enjoy it and I’m sorry for the other thing too.” I looked but Merula wasn’t planning on saying anything any time soon, “Could we do a time-out again sometime and I’ll try not to screw it up? It was nice.”

Merula stopped pulling away and looked at our hands together. It felt like watching her with the mirror again like she was talking and I was deaf. “Goodnight.” She freed her hand and turned to the girls’ dorm.  _ Okay, I did not win that fight in her head. _


	13. A Kiss in the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merula either likes the main character, or will do anything to get the upper hand. Honestly it could be both.

I could only pay half-attention in class the rest of the week. Resolving to get back to finding Jacob reminded my true purpose here. Hagrid appreciated the extra attention. Sure I was only visiting to scout the area and look like I was at his hut a bunch for an alibi, but he always had some interesting creatures laying around. He was also easy to talk about some of the “greatest” encounters he’s had in the forest as a warning to look for. Between the giant spiders, trolls, centaurs, and plants that will go out of their way to trip and trap you I had plenty to worry about searching at night, in the winter, with no one else around to help. _ _

I brought a practice broom back to Jacob’s secret room to use for my trips over the break and did my best to sort Jacob’s writings and general mess into “forbidden forest” and “everything else” piles. Between the visits to Hagrid, late nights in Jacob’s room, and studying sessions on antidotes Penny could cook up for me as a backup to bring in the forest I was able to keep a good tally of all the times I spotted Merula sneaking off or come back even later than me to the common room. She was away almost every other night consistently even with exams coming up.

Merula avoided my looks and moved to different tables in any class I sat by her in. I couldn’t get a read on her thoughts since the ball and the lack of knowing where I was with her was annoying. I wasn’t asking her out, I wasn’t trying to spend my life with her, I wasn’t even trying to be a potions partner. I just don’t need another thing to look over my shoulder and worry about with random letters showing up and Madam Rakepick avoiding me like I’m trying to steal her thunder even though she’s a freaking adult witch. 

I wanted to know what information she and Rakepick had on the forbidden forest. Coming into potions I sat by Merula and she left as usual. I followed her and she got up again. Blocking her I asked to speak after class. She growled at me to move. I didn’t. Without a word Merula brought her wand from her robes and hit me with the knockback jinx, her standard attack. 

I hit the shelves at the same moment Snape entered the room. “Detention. Both of you. Ten points from Slytherin..each.”  _ That’s one way to get her to stick in one place. _

In detention Snape had Merula and I manually scrub out cauldrons and restock his shelves as penance for breaking a row of jars and vials. I was nearly finished except for knotgrass. “Professor, you’re out of knotgrass. Everything else is fixed.”

Snape looked at his clock. “There’s little time before students are required to be in their house common rooms. Do you know where knotgrass is found?”

Merula answered for me, “It grows around the Forbidden Forest.”

“Correct. You have until curfew to replace my stocks or you’ll lose more points for being out late.” Snape looked at the two of us not moving. He swished his wand to open the door to the classroom and then again to give us each a sack to fill, “I’m waiting.”

_ How am I supposed to get to the Forbidden Forest to pick some plants and back on foot in less than an hour? And he couldn’t have needed this much knotgrass from both of us. He’s trying to get us to get in more trouble. _

Now was as good a time as ever to use that broom I stashed. “Hey Merula, get your broom and I’ll meet you down near Hagrid’s place.” I didn’t expect nor receive a thanks for that idea.

I hopped on the broom and flew off over the Herbology greenhouse and cut across the castle. The autumn daylight was quickly fading and made it challenging to see Merula until I we were both close to Hagrid’s. “You were around here with Rakepick, right? Do you know where any knotgrass is?”

“We weren’t looking for stupid plants.”  _ Fair.  _ We scanned over the edge of the forest not going far into any opening and lost another five minutes before she spotted a patch to pull up.

Dismounting we dropped to our knees and ripped the plants root and all from the ground. Moving to a new cluster I tried my hand at talking again, “So what’s been up with you since the ball?”

“Not now.”

“Well why not now? Snape’s going to take points whether we come back in five minutes or fifty. That’s his whole thing.” I was not expecting now of all times to get blasted again. I need to remember to always keep an eye on Merula.

Merula dumped my bag into hers. “Have fun walking back to class.” She threw the sack down at me and picked up my broom and hers. She kicked off the ground as I sprinted at her and jumped just in time to catch her ankle. Offbalance Merula tried flying forward and fell over the second the broom jerked to the side and landed a hundred feet away from us. 

We both grabbed the practice broom as the knotgrass spilled out. Only one of us was going to get back on time and I wasn’t the one wearing boots. Merula kicked and twisted the broom wrenching it left and right to pry from my grip. I could not understand what kept setting Merula off and I wasn’t going to actually fight back after going off on her in the mirror room. 

Merula seized the advantage and pushed me back. I fell on the pile of knotgrass as Merula leaned onto the broom over my neck.  _ Okay, not funny or cool anymore. I can’t breathe and she may actually be trying to kill me out here.  _ “Stop!” I choked out, “Stop, time-out, please.” 

Merula froze and looked at her hands and let go of the broom. She sat up over me and I learned what confusion looks like on her face. Merula dropped forward and I braced for her to strangle me again. She didn’t grab the broom from me. She kissed me. Merula kissed me.

Now I’m the one frozen. On my back and dumbfounded I missed when she got off me and took both the broom and the half-full sack. Merula flung the broom into the forest and summoned her broom back with  _ Accio _ , leaving me still on the ground and more lost than my first day in Hogwarts.

_ What just happened? Is this even real or was I hit harder by her spell than I thought? _ I stagger to my feet and scoop up the remaining knotgrass and grab the broom from the woods and take off back to Snape.  _ I didn’t even have time to kiss back. Should I have?  _

Snape was rhythmically tapping his wand on the clock. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was hitting it to go faster to make me late. “Clean your robes, Watson. Prefects from my house need to be properly dressed, no excuses.”  _ Buddy do I have an excuse though.  _

True to form Merula was not in the common room and two girls confirmed she wasn’t back in the dorms or bathroom.  _ Of course she’d run off to the mirror room again.  _ I wasn’t going to give her space tonight. We were overdue for a talk.

I needed to know what came over Merula. I could see Tulip doing this as a joke on Ben to tease him or Penny not realizing half the guys in school already idolize her and doing a kiss on the cheek or something. But not Merula. This isn’t in her bag of tricks.  _ I’m not sure if I’m trying to discount or justify the kiss. _

Navigating Hogwarts after curfew involved the usual long loops to avoid the common walkways and Filch who had his route memorized long ago. Along the way I passed a singed tapestry and portraits complaining of a devilish witch threatening them when they were questioning her out so late. And naturally hiding in the shadow of the hallway just a few doors down from the classroom were miniature fizzlers that lit and whizzed around me warning her I was here.

Wand out I slipped inside the classroom to see Merula in an aggressive stance as well. I walked into a fight when all I wanted were answers.

Merula stomped and flicked her wand sending a spell my way. I reacted with  _ Protego _ and ran to the side to get some cover with the desks. Her nonverbal skills make me sweat more than usual when dueling her. I shout my spell and it misses. Merula’s eyes did not lose contact with me and she blasted a row of chairs in the air towards me and I had to use  _ Depulso to  _ repel them. 

Hiding by things she could use as projectiles was not my best idea. I rushed further into the classroom until the mirror was between us obscuring her line of sight. In my moment to plan I levitated a chair and lobbed it over the mirror at Merula hoping it could knock her off balance.

_ She knows I’m going to come around. Fifty-fifty time.  _ Sprinting past the mirror Merula locked eyes with me and tried to cast again. Nothing happened. The break in her concentration was enough to get her spell to fail giving me the time to fire off  _ Relashio  _ on her wand. We collided, or at least I crashed into her and we tumbled to the hardstone floor making this the second time we were fighting on the ground tonight. 

“What was that outside?” I demanded pushing off her shoulder and standing up.

“Nothing.”

“Liar.”  _ I swear this girl wouldn’t accept help from me if she was two fingers shy of falling off a cliff. _ “Why did you kiss me?”

Merula stood and moved towards her wand, but I put my shoe on it so we didn’t have to have a second duel. “Like you, it was a joke, a distraction you loser. I needed you to let go of the bag so I could get back in time.” She saw my disbelief, “Don’t let it go to your head, Watson, you’re nothing to me.”

“Prove it.”  _ Prove it? Really dude? _

“You’re so pathetic. Like that would work on me?”

“Then just tell me if you like me or-”

She cut me off, “I don’t like anything about you.”

“Well I don’t know if I like you either. You’re so, so freaking frustrating and I don’t even know.”  _ Merlin I can’t get these words out. What can I even say right now?  _ “Do you even think I like you with all your crap you do to me?”

“Oh let’s see; tricking Barnaby to ask out Ismelda so you could take me. Trying to dance with me. The worst hug of my life and your wandering hand trying to hold mine? Of course you like me.” 

“I felt sorry for you. You’re so closed all the time and when your stupid feeling fortress or whatever isn’t up I felt bad. I felt how you felt. Alone, angry, thinking everyone else is holding you back and the professors are hiding more than they’re helping with these curses. I feel all that already and it was pouring off you when I found you in here after the ball. I just thought... I thought that you weren’t as bad as you pretended. I know it’s a lie, I’m a lie. We all lie to get through these classes and I know with you I’m responsible for some of that anger. I get that all the time from you and I felt bad. So forget whether I like you, I thought you needed someone and I thought or guessed that I could help.”  _ None of this makes any sense.  _

Merula pushes aside my leg with a word and puts her wand back in her robes.  _ She’s thinking about what to say and probably going to override it with some mean-spirited comment instead. _ “I’m not some vault you can break, and go around telling everyone.”

I could feel her shoving her thoughts deep to avoid them. “I’m not trying to break you. I-”  _ What do I want? _ “I don’t know what I want. I thought maybe you wanted to be something other than enemies.”

“So you like me then?”

“I don’t know anything. Yes. Maybe? Why did you kiss me?”

“I told you already, a distraction. Sorry.”

Turning to the door I gave a low groan, “Of course. Shouldn’t have read into it. Got it.” I had tried. I tried confronting her and being open about how I was confused and thought she could do the same. Naturally I was wrong about her. 


	14. That's not Cupid's Arrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marik deals with dejection by focusing on finding the Forest Vault and has a super fun encounter with a ticked-off centaur. Merula shows up with a knife...probably shouldn't be too surprised about that.

I dive hard into my search for the vault all week and decide it’s time to really go deep into the forest. I found a few mentions of a grove in the forest among Jacob’s writings and Hagrid said it was centaur territory. I didn’t quite care about the consequences of upsetting horse people.

Bill was equally against me going into the forest on his own and asked to join, but I was planning the trip the day after he left back home for Christmas. We did our standard practice sessions and I promised to update him if I made any headway after the break.

Rowan, Ben, and Penny were the only ones to stick around Hogwarts over the Christmas break. Rowan had become accustomed to taking my spot and causing a diversion whenever I needed to sneak by the other Prefects and did the same for me tonight. He knew where I was going in case I ended up in a bad way and wasn’t back by morning.  _ Always have one person know your true plans. Good motto. _

I wasn’t planning on seeing Merula leaving the dungeons at the same time as me. We didn’t exchange words or anything.  _ Probably just going to stare at a mirror again and I don’t have time to deal with her tonight. _ I summon my broom from its hiding place in the courtyard and take off to the forbidden forest.

Following a map in the dark set me back at least another fifteen minutes flying just above the treeline trying to find this opening. I didn’t want to alert any professor or creature that I was passing by.

_ Finally, that’s got to be it. _ I land in a small opening that has the same crescent shape as the map. I scan around and don’t hear any bumps in the night. With a tight grip on my broom I pull my wand out and light the area with  _ Lumos _ . 

_ Trees. Roots. More trees with roots. Oh a bush. Little trees. _ I know Jacob was here years ago and avoided any spot that had new growth. I examined old trees for hollow spots, funny looking trees that may have had fake branches, kicked a lot of roots on purpose and accident for a hidden trigger. Nothing.  _ Nothing looks special about this place at all. Was it just a place to hang out? A getaway from the school? _

The patter of hooves came from beside me. I didn’t want to deal with company and swept a leg over my broom as an arrow struck the broomstick. I yelped. I wasn’t prepared for that direct sort of engagement and dropped the broom and shone the light into the face of the singular centaur at the edge of the grove.

“You trespass, wizard.”

“I’m sorry, I was following a map. I’m looking for the vault in the forest.”

The centaur notched another arrow. “The last wizard to search here stole from me. Your kind aren’t welcome here.”

_ That had to be Jacob, right? What does a centaur have to do with the vaults? _ “Do you know that wizard’s name? Was it Jacob?”

“Yes, that traitor.”

“Okay, cool, cool. I uh, I’m his brother and I’m trying to find him. Do you know where he went or anything about that vault?”

“His brother? Then you’re a snake like him.” The centaur didn’t wait for more and an arrow twisted me around. 

Dropping on my knees I shouted in pain and cursed at the beast. “I didn’t do anything! Agh, god freaking...agh.” I look back and the centaur is ready with another arrow.  _ He’s not playing.  _ I flash my wand towards him, “ _ Relashio!” _

As soon as his bow sprung from the centaur’s hands he charged me and caught me by the neck, lifting me up to his level. “You look like him.” The centaur reached back to his quiver.

A shout from the treetops and a flash stopped him. The sound of ropes twisting ran past my ear and I crashed to the ground clutching my shoulder again.

Merula landed behind me, “Don’t mind me just saving your life.”  _ Never in my life have I been this happy to see her.  _ She pulled me back from the beast by the collar and confronted the centaur herself. “I’ve never killed a centaur before.” 

_ Did she follow me out here? Not the time for that. _ “Merula, stop.” I coughed out, “He knew Jacob. He knows something about the vault.”

“Yeah? Well then he better spill it.”

“God this stings. Just let him go. Please.” I staggered up and stood next to Merula. “I’m good, let him go now.”

“I’m going to go get on my broom first. Full faith in you, Marik.”

“We’re letting you go. I don’t want to fight. Please, I don’t want to fight. I just want to know about Jacob.” The centaur was still struggling to breathe, “Merula, stop the spell already. Forget it,  _ Finite incantatem.”  _

The ropes released and the centaur scrambled to his feet and made a half-charge at us before pacing backwards. “Your kind can never be trusted.”

“I’m sorry for that. I just want to ask about my brother. Please. How did you know Jacob?”

“Jacob came here often and talked about the cursed vault deep inside the forest. He said he needed a special item and I foolishly gave it to him. Then he stole it and I was banished.” The centaur paced back and and forth and I could tell he was sizing us up again. 

“What did he take? Maybe I can find it?”

“He stole my herd’s arrowhead.” 

“Former herd.” 

“Not now Merula!” Shouting sent a splitting pain down my arm again. “What kind of arrowhead? Big? Small?”

“Our jeweled arrowhead was our prized possession. Your brother promised to bring it back and I have been waiting, exiled, for almost ten years waiting for him to bring it back.”

“Got it, you’re mad. If I can get you this arrowhead can you show me where the cursed vault is? I know you don’t like people and I’m sure you don’t want more students sleepwalking through the woods. That’s got to be annoying right? Messing up your midnight walks?”  _ Oh god, laughing hurts so much. Shut up already and go. _ “Thank you, sir. I promise to go find this arrowhead as fast as I can. My name is Marik, you have my word.”

“A wizard’s word means nothing.”

“Watch your mouth, horsey.” 

“Merula! I’m so close...please just stop.” I look back at the centaur, “I am sorry for intruding. I am sorry for what happened with Jacob. I will fix it and return the arrowhead. How can I find you? What’s your name?”

“My name is Torvus. I cannot return to my herd and will find you here if you ever return, wizard.”

“Perfect.”  _ Am I seeing more stars? My arm’s definitely numb. I’m sure this is fine.  _ “I will do that and leave you in peace. Thank you, Torvus.” I bow and back up to my broom. Catching Merula’s glare I whisper to get out of here fast.

The broom worked just fine. I couldn’t put my weight on my right arm and listed lazily up out of the clearing and followed Merula close as I could. She wasn’t waiting for me to catch up and quickly was off in the distance. 

She was waiting for me at the edge of the forest near Hagrid’s hut, his windows long dark for the night. I remembered I had Wiggenweld potion and landed so I could down the bottle. I was placing the bottle back in my pocket when Merula walked up to me. “How did you know I was out here?” I asked.

“Bill told Rakepick and I you were doing something stupid. My words, not his. When I saw you tonight I knew it was to come here and followed you. You’re welcome.”

“Thank you. No joke I was screwed back there. Thanks.” Feeling came back to my arm and it sucked. My blood had started to dry and freeze on my robes and the arrow was firmly stuck now. “I’d probably be dead.”

“Wait until Rakepick hears about this. She’ll never let you join her on a mission again.”

“Can we drop that right now? I still have this arrow in my shoulder. I’m going to have to see Madam Pomfrey and I don’t quite know how to explain this yet.”

Merula looked close at the arrow and I was certain she was going to rip it out. “Lay down, Watson, I’ll get it out.” She didn’t ask again and shoved me down into the thin layer of snow. I held my wand up by my shoulder and lit the area with  _ Lumos _ so Merula could see better. Merula took out a knife from her sleeve,  _ of course she carries a knife _ , and told me to act strong for once.

I couldn’t not look as she cut the sides of my wound to make it longer. I tried to distract myself and talk to distance the pain. “Great, first time we talk after everything and we’re right back here again.”  _ Ouch! I think that one was on purpose. _ “I did setup Barnaby and Ismelda to get with you. Barnaby wanted to ask her on his own and…”  _ Please be careful _ , “Barnaby wanted to ask Ismelda and she was the one that made you and I go together.”

“Made us?”

“I’m sorry.”  _ Don’t stab me,  _ “She said it first, not me. It was fun though, we had fun. It wasn’t awful. And those two have been stuck together ever since. You see them at breakfast and dinner next to each other.” 

“Stay still or this will be more fun. I need a twig or something.”

“Twig?”

“Something to get around the edge of the arrow so I don’t rip something pulling it out and you die while I’m saving you.”

“I guess this isn’t as bad as last time out here.” 

Merula stopped and stood up, “Do you want me to leave you out here? I’ll go and you can save your loser self.”

“Please, no I’m sorry. Dumb joke. Everything’s a dumb joke now. You really screwed me up, you know? Yeah, I must like you because I’ve been feeling like trash the last two weeks. Right now notwithstanding.”

“Got it.” Merula pinched the arrow right at the edge of my skin and slid it out followed by more blood. Like, enough blood that I should be worried about how I wasn’t feeling anything.

“Sit me up please. I need to stop the bleeding.” Merula propped me up and I used  _ Episkey _ to close up part of the wound. It wasn’t a strong spell and I pressed my hand against my shoulder to keep the pressure on. I got back to my feet and looked for any level of understanding in Merula.  _ Still can’t get a read on her _ . “Well, sorry for liking you. It was a surprise to me too.” Yes I was fishing for something, anything. “Whatever we had at the ball, whatever that was, I liked it and wish we could do again. A break from the competition.”

“You don’t get how rude that is.” Merula clapped back. 

“What do you mean?”

“I’m no one’s ‘break’ or ‘time-out.’ How can you say you like me if you don’t respect or ask about my feelings?”

“I’ve asked how you felt!”  _ Yelling still hurts.  _ “I’ve asked. I don’t mean I want to pretend like nothing’s changed and snog off in a corner or out here in the woods. I mean spending time with you helps me forget the world. It doesn’t go away but you made it not suck as much and then you made it worse.”

“See, you’re always going on about how you feel.”

“Fine, fine. You win. I’m a bloody, and bleeding, idiot.” I remembered last year and even the moment we shared in the mirror room and I felt my blood start to boil as we walked back to the castle. I let loose again a few minutes later, “No, it’s not fine. You can’t say I’m focused on me after all the times I have tried to include you and gone out of my way to help you without it benefiting me at all. I gave you my spot in the frog choir, I bought you a songbook, we just sat and hated on the world looking at the mirror and hugged. I did those things because I put your needs first. And I would again if you needed it. I’m not trying to impress you or make you owe me, I was just being nice.”

“You’re going to owe me for tonight.”

“Sure, I don’t care. I know I was a goner tonight and I owe you a lot if that’s what you want to hear. All I want to hear is how you really feel.”

“Don’t tell Pomfrey I saved your butt. I’ll do that tomorrow in front of everyone myself.” Merula turned to break away from me, but stopped and looked back. She gave a hug and really leaned into my shoulder and I have to assume it was intentional. “I’m glad you didn’t die tonight.”

“Me too?” I put my one good arm around her and appreciated the change from the cold air blowing on me. “Anything else?”

“Nope.” Merula looked up at me and waited. For what I don’t know considering her words and actions rarely seem to be in sync.

_ Go for it? Sure, go for it. Mood totally fits a kiss. I’m bleeding, she has a knife, I was choked by a centaur. All signs point to why the heck not.  _

I lean in to kiss Merula and she pushes off right on my shoulder. “You are too easy. That’s sad.” Merula spun on her heel and shouted over her shoulder, “Don’t die on the way to the hospital wing!” 


	15. Wit-Sharpening Sidequest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovered (physically) from the incident in the forest we find Merula stole from Penny. Time to get some payback for Merula messing with Marik.

Twenty house points later I was given a bed to sleep in for the night while my shoulder healed up. I took offense that no one questioned that I said it was from using  _ Acccio _ on a dagger to be cool and didn’t catch it in time.

Rakepick paid me a visit and wasted no time lording over me that she knew what I was really doing and what I was searching for. She lent me her niffler Sickleworth to hunt around the school and suggested I try Filch’s office first.

I found a new broom to replace the messed up one thanks to Torvus the centaur and another black quill. Sickleworth found a key and seemed really attached to it but didn’t hand it over. I more than half suspect he had a side mission from Rakepick considering her reputation with Filch and most of the other professors. 

The black quill complicated matters with Rakepick. This one turned into a note threatening Rakepick and I can’t tell if she is fighting these R people or if she is working for them and not following directions. Both seem just as likely.

When the artifact room and the ice vault corridor turned up empty I figured it was time to let Sickleworth search around Jacob’s room. It was almost insulting to me that every time I looked around Jacob’s room there was a new clue or puzzle like the room itself was a little different each time. I thought about camping out in the room trying to see if anyone else visited or if the room changed around like the Grand Staircase. Unfortunately, still no luck with the missing arrowhead.

With only a week left before the end of the holiday I was running out of time to search around freely and try to end the curse before more students were taken in. The latest group of students were still asleep and had to be restrained so they didn’t get up and wander into the forest.

Rowan and I looked over Jacob’s notes on the Forbidden Forest and he agreed Jacob had some hideout out there where he kept some cursed artifacts and practiced spells. Rowan suggested letting Sickleworth search around the Grove area for the secret spot since Jacob probably had some rare and shiny things around that could attract the niffler.

“Did you forget the part where I was shot with an arrow?”

“Now you know if you hear hooves to run away on sight.”

“Right, just ask myself, ‘what would Ben do?’ and I’ll be good.” I rolled my shoulder and lied to myself that I was going to be fine. “You sure you don’t want to come?”

“I can’t. I’m helping Penny brew a potion. She said she needed some of my books and it will take a while.”

“I get it, you like your arms and legs not to be broken. Live your life in the slow lane.” I laughed and gave the should-have-been-a-Ravenclaw a pat before fetching Sickleworth for a midnight walk.

Hogwarts had a very “at your own risk” attitude towards students during the holidays making getting out much easier and almost a waste of my three years of training prior. 

Landing back in the Grove I set Sickleworth to the ground, “Look for a secret room with lots of treasure in it for you.” The niffler zigzagged around the grove climbing over roots and knocking against trees searching for any hidden treasures. He perked his head up and scuttled out of the grove down a little beaten path. 

I was sweating enough in the Grove where I could see a bit. I didn’t want to follow Sickleworth far into the forest. Ducking low to avoid reaching branches and who knows what else I kept up with Sickleworth until he started jumping and prying on a hooked root. 

Prying the root from the ground took a chunk of earth and small plants with it and opened the door to a hatch underneath. “Good boy!” I said with a little tickle under his bill and slid down the hatch.

Blood. Everywhere. The floor was dark crimson. Sections of the wall looked striped. Tables were overturned, glass and pottery littered the ground. All that was missing were the bodies.  _ This can’t be it.  _ Thoughts flashed of all the horrors that could have lead to each stain and whether Jacob’s body was lying behind the wrecked furniture. 

A shriek filled the room and some creature jumped out from behind an overturned bookshelf. It was dwarf-like, or a really tall hillbilly elf with a red little hat on it’s head. He wasn’t interested in being festive and I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the club...nope that’s a bone in its hand. 

I channeled Ben, grabbing Sickleworth by the scruff of his neck and climbed out of the hole. Outside I finally toned into the creature's voice, “Die! Die! Kill! Kill! Kill!”  _ Hard pass on that. _ I didn’t want to end up as another weapon for him to wield and peaced right out of the forest back to the castle.

The next morning I hunted down Penny and Rowan in the Great Hall during breakfast to try and find a way to handle the squatter in Jacob’s other secret hideout. Rowan knew right away I was talking about an appropriately named red cap. “They’re attracted to places with blood.”

“So he didn’t cause all that mess? He was just enjoying it. Weird. Very weird. Next question then, how can I fight it?”

Rowan pulled out a creature book that he naturally had with him already, “You may not have to.” He flipped through to the red cap page. “Right, yes red caps hate pretty things.” 

I stared, waiting for more, “Like bring a mop or ten and clean the place up?” 

“No, no, maybe...well, no. You could show something beautiful, but something he can’t destroy.”

“What does a red cap find beautiful? Going to point out this is a weird weakness.”

“I could make a beautification potion.” Penny chimed in. 

I didn’t need to ask what that was, I knew that much. “Does it take long? I’ll help, whatever gets me to find this arrowhead sooner.”

“Attention, students.” Snape said in a surprise announcement. “Miss Snyde has shown above-average potion skills and requests special recognition for her wit-sharpening potion.” He turned back to Merula and in his cold, mocking voice, “Satisfied?” 

“Wasn’t that your..?” I began before Penny nearly leapt over the table to strangle the thieving witch. 

“That was m-” Penny clamped her mouth and stewed on Merula’s act. “How did that little witch even know? We only made it last night.” Penny shifted her seat and glared at Rowan, “What did you do?”

Rowan shrank in his seat. “I was happy we made the potion! I told everyone in the common room this morning. I don’t even remember Merula being around. Where did you put the potion?”

Penny spun and checked her bag. “It was in here when I came for breakfast. She stole it from my bag? I’ll hex her hair right off!”

“Is revenge really a Hufflepuff thing to do?’

Penny swatted his characterization, “That’s not the point, Marik. She, she should pay for what she did.”

“Do you want me to take care of it?”  _ I have plenty of my own issues with Merula at the moment that I could use this as an excuse for. _

“You’d help me out?”

I joked that he would join just about any prank, but especially for getting to pull one over on Merula. “Just let me know what kind of revenge and I can help. I just want one thing in return: I need you to make a potion to help get rid of that red cap.”

“Deal.” Penny wasted no time and rushed away from the table leaving Marik and Rowan scurrying to keep up.

“Where’s she taking us, Marik?” Rowan asked trying to keep a grip on his books and bag. 

“Don’t know, don’t care. Anyone that in a rush about a prank is worth following. You should hang out with Tonks more.” 

“Shouldn’t we bring Tonks or Tulip in?”

“No need to make it a group project if we don’t need to. Besides, Tulip and Merula are on shaky ground as it is trying to share Dennis for the Frog Choir.”

Penny led us to the Artefact room that had long been a spot for her to cook up different potions over the years. Penny slid off the cloth cover revealing six cauldrons all being used.

“What are you making here Penny?” 

“Lots of things, don’t worry about them, just this one.” Penny pointed at the cauldron on the far right that looked grimier than the rest. “I started this one a couple weeks ago. It’s polyjuice potion. It lets you turn into whoever you want even with just a hair. My goal was to get some points for the wit-sharpening potion and then really blow them away with this, but now I have a better idea.”

“Yay for mad Penny.” I cheered. “So who are you going to turn into?”

“Merula. Confess and maybe get a little detention. Sounds fair.”

Rowan began to object before I pushed him out of the room, “No, no, no, Penny. That’s too easy. If you’re going to show off your skills you need to think bigger. And you’d make a terrible Merula. You’re pretty much the opposite of Merula in terms of personality.”

“Do you want to be Merula?”

“First, not all Slytherins are the same. Second, we don’t need to change into her. We can change into a professor and embarrass her.”

“Couldn’t we get in trouble for pretending to be a teacher?”

“Any more trouble than using polyjuice potion in the first place?”

Penny looked like she was starting to doubt the idea, “I guess this-”

“It’s a good idea to use. And if we get caught I’ll say I stole your potion that you were going to use and Slytherins suck and all that.” I snickered at a terrible idea, “What if we turned into Snape? He sort of praised her back there and she looks up to him. He’d be perfect to knock her down a few pegs.”

Penny shifted around without agreeing. I quickly reassured her and asked her how long it would take to make the beautification potion for the red cap. “Just a few days. I’ll have this potion done and will get yours to you right after.” 

“Perfect. I’ll go grab a hair from Snape.” Penny gave me a few warnings about making sure I only got the hair from Snape so we didn’t mix with anyone else or another animal and I was off.


	16. There's a Snape in my potion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penny gets us to change into Snape and embarrass Merula.

I ran through a couple random ideas to snatch a hair from Snape. There weren’t classes for another couple days and so he wasn’t around the classroom much. I didn’t think searching around his office for greasy black hair was a good idea in case anyone else was shedding. Snape wasn’t the most personable person and liked his space so getting up close to pluck a hair seemed like a surefire way to failure.  _ I should bring in the experts for this part, Rowan’s going to give me such an ‘I told you so.’ _

I spotted Tulip and Tonks out playing an exploding snap card game outside the herbology classroom. “Hey girls, I had a question about a prank.” They spun around giving their most interested looks. “I need to snag a bit of someone’s hair. A professor. Snape specifically.”

“I already like where this is going.” Tonks laughed.

“I’m in too!” Chimed Tulip.

“Right, good. So I just need to steal some hair from Snape. If you had to go about that, what ideas would you try?”

“Accio hair?” Tonks suggested, “You just may get more than you want.”

“How about getting his hair caught in a spider web?”

_ Such a shame to let that one down,  _ “Can’t be that, unfortunately. I need just his hair and can’t be mixed with anything else like a creature or stuff.”

“That means my idea of throwing a cat at his head is out?”

I laughed at the thought of Snape running around with a cat clawing at his head, maybe smashing into a shelf or over a desk, “Put a pin in that for another time.”

“Where does Snape even go during the day?” Tulip asked. “I could find out if you want.”

“The only place he’s always at is dinner in the great hall with the other teachers that I know of.”

Tonks jumped from her seat and pulled out a little square tile from her pocket. “I have just what you need. This little guy sticks to anything. I was going to use it to catch the little thief who keeps taking my snacks from my bag. But I have four more so you can have this one.”

“Okay, yeah. I’ll set this up on the chair and when Snape leans back it’ll catch some hair and he’ll have to pull it out. Perfect.”

“And naturally you’ll want a distraction to get up to the chair?”

“Do I even need to ask?”

The girls responded “No” in unison and we made off to the great hall again.

It bothered me that I had to wait to get back at Jacob’s little forest hangout, but this was an amusing distraction to get back at Merula for screwing with my feelings in the meantime. Every time I walked by the corridor with the mirror room I felt that draw to go in and see Jacob again and try to talk to him. I still couldn’t get past how lost in the mirror Merula looked and had to remind myself he wasn’t really here. I was going to get the real thing, not a reflection. Plus the idea of being alone with Merula was a mixed bag of feelings. Did I like her? Was I reading too much into her games? Did she want any help? Regardless of her and me I know she has lost tons of sleep and study time in front of the mirror and she was losing her edge in classes.

Inside the Great Hall, Tonks and I started looking around desperately calling out for Dennis the frog. Tulip suggested we put on a fake search and she would rush up to the professors’ table after hearing him croak. As far as fake missions it went quite well and Tulip didn’t get to use any of her excuses when she “found” Dennis on Snape’s chair. Tulip had a little frown walking down when no one stopped her complaining that it was too easy and not as fun. I wasn’t complaining.

During dinner I kept one eye on Snape, checking with Tulip and Tonks every minute or two in case they saw him lean back and we missed it. Snape didn’t flinch or act any angrier than normal.  _ He’s such an uptight person and doesn’t tolerate slouching.  _ I wondered what was in his hair products to stop Tonk’s sticky tile. 

Sure enough Dennis got free again after the half the teachers, including Snape, dismissed themselves and miraculously found him on Snape’s chair again. Tulip pardoned herself and even paused to chat with Professor Flitwick on her way down. She passed me a solid handful of hair that was on Snape’s chair. Apparently Snape’s scowl doesn’t break even when his hair is yanked out.

“That’s more than we need, Marik.” Penny laughed when I showed her the spoils of our endeavor. “But you can certainly say that’s Snape’s hair for sure. The polyjuice potion will be ready in two days on Friday. Meet me back here before dinner and we’ll get you transformed.”

“Question, how do we keep the real Snape from showing up?”

Penny didn’t look up from her books and just smiled, “Already taken care of. A friend of mine who is in detention even more than Tonks was already planning to keep Snape occupied.”

“Do I want to know?”

“I’m sure you do. Jae Kim, he’s really good at getting things. He’s who got me the ingredients I needed for the polyjuice potion. I didn’t want to go out to the woods and get knotgrass myself.”

_ Does she know about Merula? Why would she say that otherwise? How does Penny know everything? _ I have to be subtle so I don’t spill any secrets in case this was a coincidence. “Did you know I was out getting knotgrass as detention not that long ago with Merula?”  _ That wasn’t subtle. _

Glancing over Penny noticed the beads of sweat on my head, “Are you hot in here? And no, he just took it from Snape’s room I think. I don’t ask where he gets things most of the time.”

“Okay cool, just wondering.”

“Is there anything you want to tell me?” Penny had that curious inflection in her voice. 

_ This is how she knows everything. Everyone just incriminates themselves.  _ “No, it just seemed you were referencing me, but it’s good to know why Snape needed more.” I see Penny’s eyes narrow a bit, judging me. I’m pretty sure she didn’t buy it. “How are you and Bill?”

“He’s great! He writes almost every day from his home. I can’t wait for him to come back.”

“I’m glad that’s working out for you. You both are pretty great people.” I moved towards the door and said I would see her Friday for the revenge to get started and turned in for the night.

As planned, Penny was more than ready for me to transform. She had transfigured some old robes to a perfect match of his and hustled me into the corner to change.

We agreed to get Merula once she was finishing up dinner so Jae had time to create a commotion in the potions classroom and lure the real Snape again. “I’m not sure how long the potion will last, it says it can be short or up to twelve hours. I’m hoping it’s not that long.”

“Same.” I took the cup from Penny and she gave me a final, wholly understated warning that this wretched potion would taste so vile I choked after the first drop touched my throat. “Ugh, we may as well just pour that into her drink and watch her gag.”

“Oh, that would have been a great idea too.” Penny laughed. “Watching Merula gag and then turn into Snape?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a combination of Ben’s nightmares.” I gave a laugh and crumpled on the floor instead. My stomach felt like it was kicking its way out of me and I freaked out as the skin on my hands started drooping. The pain and grossness ceded as I grew a little taller while my hair darkened and face stretched and banished all color. 

In what Penny told me had only been a minute I successfully changed into Professor Snape. “Awesome, please don’t make me do this again.” I smirked and stuck my tongue out to wipe off any residual potion. The thought of the taste made me shudder.

“Don’t do that. Any of that.” Penny gestured at all of me. “Snape doesn’t smile or joke, or show his tongue…”

I pushed my hair back,  _ that just feels annoying on the back of my neck, _ and pretended I grew up with no friends and had a life-time obsession with traumatizing children. “Correct, Miss Haywood.”

“Better!” Penny clapped with glee. “Let’s go ruin Merula.”

“Agreed.”

Penny lead the way back to the Great Hall and leaned in to check if the coast was clear. “Ok, Merula looks like she is done. She’s just berating some younger Slytherins. And Snape is gone. Get in there.”

With all the self-importance of a peacock that desired zero attention and wanted to make sure everyone knew how little I cared I walked into the Great Hall with Penny behind me now. “Miss Snyde. A moment, now.”

Merula spun in her seat and stood immediately, “Yes Professor?”

“Miss Haywood has spent the better part of my evening detailing some...troubling matters.” I pinched a finger behind my back to avoid smiling. “Tell me, how long did the wit-sharpening potion take you to create?”

“I, uhm, that was a while ago, why is she asking about it? What did that little sunshine brat say?”

“Mer-”  _ Don’t break character.  _ “Don’t waste my time. Answer the question.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t remember. A few days?”

“And what exactly goes into the potion?”

“I don’t know, I just followed the book.” I saw Merula focus on Penny’s face and whatever Penny was doing behind me was rubbing Merula the wrong way. “If she says I-”

“Enough. You made your house look foolish and worse, myself. Fifteen points from Slytherin.”

A voice came from behind me, “Don’t you feel that’s a bit harsh, Severus?”

I turned and stared at Dumbledore.  _ Well crap. _ “Miss Snyde...has tricked her peers…” I’m not able to shake this look Dumbledore has on me, staring right into my eyes as if I’m only wearing a silly plastic mask. “Miss Haywood demonstrated her work and should be awarded the credit.”

“Ah, yes, indeed. Miss Haywood and her friend should each be commended for their work on the potion. Clearly a lot of time and effort was put in and we wouldn’t want to see that go to waste. Miss Haywood, when you go see young Mr. Watson please give him my regards. It has been some time since I have seen him.”

“Yes of course, Headmaster, thank you.” Penny ditched me.

“Curious how fast you came back from Mr. Kim’s matter. Be careful you aren’t trying to be in two places at once, Severus. Good day.” Dumbledore left me standing paler than before, feet glued to the floor. 

I looked over and saw Merula was studying me and twisted my thumb until I felt a concerning pop. “Avoid disgracing myself or your house again.” I flourished my cape and spun on my heel and marched towards the door. 

Without knocking I barged into the Artefact room and Penny leapt up from her cauldrons. “Professor?”

“No, it’s me.” I started laughing, more out of panic than happiness. “Why didn’t you warn me Dumbledore was there!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see him either. He just showed up.”

“I can’t believe you left me there. He, he knows doesn’t he?”

Penny shook her head, “I never assume Dumbledore doesn’t know what is going on at the school.”

“So what do I do now? How do I change back?”

“You just have to wait for the spell to wear off.”

“And we don’t know how long that can be. Solid.”

“Please remember you still look and sound like Snape. This is all weird looking at you.”

“Don’t make me break out in a song and dance. But if I have this body, I can think of a couple things I can go do now that curfew doesn’t apply. I’ll see you later.”

“Thank you for your help! I’m sure Dumbledore won’t say anything, but I just wanted to show off some potions and you were the best!” Penny went in for a hug and stopped. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t blame you, I wouldn’t touch me either.”


	17. Only when *I* want to

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's very unclear how long the polyuice potion may last, hopefully long enough to set Merula straight.

Abusing my time in Snape’s body, I went to the library and casually strolled into the Restricted Section. I searched around and skimmed through books on dark artifacts and creatures hoping to help with the Red Cap and the centaurs after I found their arrowhead. 

Regardless of who was in her Library, Madam Pince still booted me from the Library at curfew, albeit she was more careful not to irritate the most frustrating professor. 

I wandered the halls enjoying the extra quiet and having fun with the fact that I was able to without worry. I even got to scare a pair of Gryffindors sneaking around and send them to their rooms threatening to deduct hundreds of points if I ever catch them outside late again.

Having my fill I walk to the dungeons and pace about waiting to change back. I spot a sixth year Prefect sitting hunched over in front of the Slytherin common room door, “Hard to catch students with your eyes shut.”

“Professor!” They sat up straight and apologized for nodding off. 

“Indeed. Tell me, are all students in their dorms?”

“No, no sir.” The prefect darted their eyes back and forth, weighing something in their head.

“Out with it then. Who is out after curfew?”

“Merula, sir. She hit me with something is the last thing I remember before you came. And the cursed kid never came back after dinner. I don’t know if they’re together or not.” 

“Shame, wasted potential on you.”  _ I really have no idea how they do in class, this just seems to be the kind of jerk thing for Snape to say _ . “Don’t let me catch you asleep again.”

I make a straight line to the mirror room. If Merula’s out then she’s definitely just wasting away in front of the mirror again.  _ I could use Snape to trick her into leaving this place alone. _

Sure enough, as I open the door to the classroom I see Merula sitting on the ground again staring at the reflection of her parents. “Miss Snyde! What is the meaning of this?”

Merula instinctively pulled out her wand and withdrew it when she saw Snape-me standing in the doorway. “How did you know I was here?”

“This room is off-limits to students. You can not be in here.”

Merula looked back over at the mirror and I may as well have said she can’t breathe air anymore. “I can’t leave.”

_ Curse my guilty heart I don’t think I can go through with this. I can feel her sadness and desperation right now. She’s thinking about attacking a teacher right now. I need a second plan. _ “Miss Snyde, sit at that table.” I walk over and sit across from where I pointed. Merula cautiously approached. She must have known this was not Snape-like behavior. “I know what you see in that mirror. You parents.” I lifted my hand to stop her from interjecting. “Do not test me. It is not them. They are not here. They are in Azkaban and you are a student at Hogwarts. There is no getting them out, only getting you in.” I honestly didn’t care that I was breaking character. Merula needed a lecture from someone on this obsession.

“Merula, you are a gifted student. You have shown exceptional skill in charms and spellwork. I know Rakepick has even worked with you on non-verbal magic, which even Mr. Watson cannot perform. But spending all your time in here means you are stalling and letting those you compete with to beat you. You and Marik are similar.” Merula did disagree here, but I deserved that, “You both lost family and are working here to get stronger for them. You should consider working with Marik instead of-” I felt my gut go on a rampage again and knew my Cinderella clock struck midnight. I tried to stand and hustle to the door, but my body was changing at different speeds and I missed a step when my leg shrank and totally fell over stepping into Snape’s cape. 

Merula came around the table with her wand lit in my face right as it changed back into my actual face. “Marik!” Surprise turned into fury, “I’ll kill you.” 

I sprung back and started running away, “I hope you appreciate the level of effort that went into this and we can talk like not-adults!”

“You humiliated me in front of the school. You’re dead.” Merula shot off spells at me sending chairs and tables flying. I really didn’t like that she was using fire spells as well as half a dozen desks caught fire. 

“I’m sorry in advance.” I point my wand at the mirror and levitate it up to the ceiling. Merula stop trying to curse me and instead cursed at me to put it down. “I will, but I need you to listen to me first. I really meant it when I said this isn’t healthy. Look at you now. How can I fight back when you’re not even giving me the warning that the spell is coming? Imagine you spend half the time you were in here training with Rakepick or studying and practicing this some more?”

“Marik, if you don’t put the mirror down I’m going to knock your annoying teeth out.”

“I’m not going to break the mirror. Here.” I lower the mirror and lower my wand. I can still feel her emotions and through all the anger at me she is still scared.  _ Is it about being alone? _ “Merula, let’s just stop for a minute.” I cough on some smoke and put out the fires. Walking close to her I try to think of something small to change the subject. I run through the other things we have talked about here and the mirror with her parents. I remember the snow spell and cast it to help cool the room down.

“Don’t use that spell! That’s mine.” 

“I know, and it’s a great spell. There were a lot of other things besides curses your parents could have taught, but this is a really good one. I’m still jealous of it.”

“That doesn’t change anything, stop trying to get in my business.”

“Why? Like seriously, why?”

“It’s none of your business.” 

“But I’m asking to actually make it my business. I want to know about you and your family. I feel all this anger on you but you also feel sad and upset with yourself. I want to fix that.” _ I what now? _

“Right, sure you do.” 

“I actually think I mean that. It sounds easy to just keep fighting and not worry about what you’re up to, but I can’t not think about you. Partially because you always try to mess up what I’m doing, but also because I think you’re a strong witch and I need help with these vaults and whatever Rakepick is up to.”

“So it isn’t even about me. You just need help because you’re pathetic.”

“No, I’m saying since you are also looking for the vaults I see you a lot more than just being in the same house. And because of all the stuff we have been through I think it would be better if we got along.”

Merula scoffed, “That’s the same thing you just said.”

I throw up my hands, “I don’t know what you want me to say then. I want to be friends, or something, with you. I know you don’t always hate me. I thought we had a decent time together and you literally saved me from a centaur so I thought there was something on your end too. I at least can admit that I like you. You could at least be big enough to say you don’t like me back.”

Merula stared back, silent. 

“I’m just tired of wondering and I should have taken your silence and rejections before. That’s my bad I guess for being stupid. But that aside, you need to stop coming here. Can we leave?” Merula didn’t answer. I slowly made my way through the debris and light layer of snow to her side. “Come on.” I took her hand and tugged to follow me. 

With less resistance than I thought Merula walked along with me out of the classroom. We turned left instead of the way back to the common room and she immediately asked where we were going. “I still have that lock you and Tulip used on Jacob’s room. I think we should use that on this room’s door so if you need to go back we can come together. I’m not saying never come back, but I don’t want it to be all the time.”

“Who says you get to be the boss of me?”

“Literally no one, just ask and I’ll come with you and wait in the corner or just sit and look at the mirror myself. Besides, I need your help getting to this forest vault.” That caught her attention. “I found a secret hideout in the woods that Jacob made and there’s a red cap in it that I need to get rid of. Penny’s-”

“Those things are easy. My parents would blast them away from the house all the time when I was little.”

I remembered the kinds of places red caps were attracted to and decided now wasn’t the time to go down that rabbit hole. “Did you ever beat one yourself?”

“Yes, I used his own club.”

“Okay, well...If Penny’s potion to scare it away doesn’t work I would really like you there now. What other creatures have you fought?”

The redirection worked. Merula walked all the way to Jacob’s room with me and didn’t let go of my hand once. I let go in front of Jacob’s secret room and used the keys to undo the lock on the door and handed it to Merula. I used  _ Collorptus _ to lock the door again as a half precaution against someone snooping around. It would stop someone looking for a quick entrance, but anywhere in Hogwarts seemed accessible if you wanted to get in or out bad enough.

“Let’s get on back, it’s a miracle Filch and Mrs. Norris haven’t found us.” The palm of my hand was cold now after holding Merula’s hand for so long. I reached and took her hand again for warmth purposes only and she indulged me again because why not send mixed messages?

Turns out we did find Filch. He was standing right in front of the mirror room, beside a puddle, staring angrily at the snow spilling out of the room. Mrs. Norris walked out of the room and shook off her paws and began to look around. Merula pulled me behind a suit of armor and something, I have no idea what, stabbed me in the back.

Gritting my teeth I tried suppressing a groan, but Merula pressed up against me must have felt a sound coming and pointed her wand at my face and whispered, “ _ Oscausi. _ ”

I couldn’t feel my mouth anymore and my lips seemed fused together. My groan inflected into surprise with Merula shushing me. Her body pushed mine back into the object and if the screaming nerves are to be trusted it was a broken piece of trim that lined the walls. Either the suit of armor was hiding the damage or they weren’t the first people to choose this hiding spot and the previous curfew-breakers smacked the wall. 

“Watch this, Watson.” Merula snickered, pulling out some pellets from her pocket. She twisted around and peered down the hallway. She rested her wand on her wrist right behind the pellets and lightly said, “ _ Depulso.” _ The pellets flew off her hand into the distance and four pops cracked in the distance. 

“This way, Mrs. Norris, this is the work of that Karasu girl, I know it.” Filch’s footsteps trailed off.

Merula looked back at me. “I like this version of you. Come on now.” She gripped my cloak and walked back into the hallway. She ignored my attempts to get in her face and reverse the spell. I held my own wand to my face and shouted  _ Finite incantatem _ but nothing happened. Merula could tell I was fighting this jinx and laughed at me. “That’s another spell my parents taught me when I was too loud. Feel free to use this on yourself anytime you want.”

Merula opened the door to the mirror room and ended the weather spell. She slammed the door shut and clapped the lock on the door. Looking at me again, she held out a hand. She wasn’t looking to hold hands this time, she wanted one of the keys. I fetched a key from my pocket and with my other hand gestured at my mouth. 

“Key first.”

I pointed with both hands at my face.  _ Mouth first. _

Merula pushed me against the door and the lock hit the same sore spot on my back. She came in fast and kissed the spot formerly known as my lips and licked my nose. “Thanks for the key.” I was not paying attention to my hand, she got me there. Moving away, Merula flicked her wand and I took several deep breaths.

“Is that what I’m missing here? You only want to do anything when you want to?”

“On the nose, dummy.” 

“Do you, do you still want to?” This girl hexed me just a few minutes ago, what is wrong with me?

Merula blew away the lingering stink cloud and walked back to the stairs, “You’re too easy.”

If nothing else I was getting a clear picture of what a messed up relationship with Merula would look like. 


	18. Marik kisses Merula at the end (why be subtle?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After returning the arrowhead Marik does some standard 3rd grade flirting in the common room.

Merula didn’t forget that I asked for her help dealing with the red cap and insisted on coming along. She had her own broom and we had no issues leaving the castle as everyone was distracted on the last free night before classes. 

We landed together in the grove and followed the path back to the secret hideout. I jumped at the sound of hooves behind me and saw it was just Merula tapping her broom. “Scared you.”

“I nearly tossed Sickleworth into a tree. I don’t feel like carrying him, here.” I tossed the niffler without any other warning and slowed my breathing back to normal looking ahead where Merula couldn’t see.

I pulled up the root attached to the hatch and slid down the ladder in a hurry. I spun with the beautification potion in hand just as the red cap noticed me. I flicked off the cork to the vial and threw it into the red caps face. Purple smoke covered the red cap and what emerged I can only describe as a red cap’s impression of Marie Antoinette, complete with a pompous white wig on its head. Merula was by my side and  _ accio’d  _ a half-shattered mirror to her and held it facing the red cap. 

The creature stared at itself, touching its face and looking at the smudges of make-up left on its hand. The red cap realized he was the “beautiful” beast in the mirror. Howling and swinging its club wildly it knocked Merula and I into the earthen wall and fled up the stairs and into the woods. 

Merula pushed off me to help herself up first and looked around the hideout. “Cool place, I like it.”

I stare at the blood stains still very present on the ground and try to say this is a response to her conditioning while growing up. “Right, set Sickleworth down and let him get to work. Find the fancy jeweled arrowhead, you can do it!”

Sickleworth plopped on the ground and began looking through drawers, under books, rifling through papers and squeezing behind any and everything against the walls. Within five minutes the little guy found the arrowhead and immediately tried to hide it from us. 

I caught the niffler before he could stuff the arrowhead in his pouch and took the arrowhead from him. “Here. Take this guy back to the school, I’ll go deal with Torvus.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with a centaur. You nearly died last time.”  _ Do I detect concern from her?  _ “I don’t want to miss that.”  _ Nevermind. _

We made our way back to the grove and called out for Torvus. I really hope he could hear us because there was enough beds filled in the hospital wing already of students who ran into the residents in the forest. 

“Protego!” shouted Merula behind me and I looked just in time to see an arrow bounce off her shield, “We have the bloody arrowhead, idiot horse.”

“Here!” I held the arrowhead up and waited as the centaur slowly brought his bow and arrow down to his side and trotted up to us. 

“I didn’t recognize you. Not that it changes much.” Torvus took the arrowhead and inspected it as if we had made a forgery. “My thanks. You are different from your brother after all it seems.”

“Thanks, and please in the future don’t shoot first and ask questions later. Now can you tell us where the forest vault is hidden?”

“The vault is deep in the woods, where the foul creatures with eight legs dwell.”

“So four legs is okay, but eight is too many?”

“Not now, Merula.”  _ I think she’s trying to get me injured again. _ “Where do we actually need to go though?”

“Follow this path.” Torvus motioned out to the left of the grove, “When the webs impede your path, you must go even further and you will find the vault.”

“That sounds, that sounds like we could be in worse danger than just some spiders. Now that you will be able to rejoin your herd, is there any way I could ask you lead us to the vault?”

The centaur tapped his hoof a few times mulling over the idea. “This is not a problem for centaurs. However the students returning to Hogwarts are drawing increased concern with my herd and other creatures who would harm them. I will help you. You must return here in three days during the full moon and I will guide you.”

“Thank you. My friends and I will be here and we will break this curse.”

“Until then.” 

“Thank you.” I bow and catch Merula’s sleeve pulling us away and onto our brooms. “Finally a successful mission.” 

“Hardly, no one got hurt.” 

“Yeah, I said successful.”

“If you say so.”

We fly back and walk up into the courtyard. From behind the fountain a hooded figure walks out in front of us, their face obscured by some artificial darkness. A harsh voice fell out of the hood, “Death is coming for you, Marik Watson.”

Merula and I readied our wands, “Are you behind those quills and the letters? Who are you.”

“Death is coming.”

“We heard you the first time, come on Marik,  _ Flipendo!”  _ Merula stepped forward and sent off a spell. I followed suit and we sent volleys for a minute and the hooded wizard deflected them all without faltering a step.

“You should stop now, Marik. Unless you want those you care about to die.” The wizard twirled their wand and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

I searched the courtyard looking for clues of any trace and came up empty-handed. “This is the kind of thing that happens pretty often to me if you stuck around long enough.”

“I don’t know if I believe what happened. Who could defend all my attacks that easily?”

I managed to get out, “We can go ask Madam Pomfrey if she has anything for your bruised ego.” After that I found myself pushed into the water fountain. Merula didn’t even curse me that time, just a regular push. “Ok, it’s only half-ice in-in here, that’s-s fine.” I flop out onto the stone floor of the courtyard and take off my robe and feel half as heavy. “Come on, now we have to sneak back and not get caught leaving a trail of water all the way.”

On multiple levels it should bother me that this girl who taunts, hexes, and gets joy out of my suffering is the same one that I want to be close with. Even now as my hands are going numb I want to use the little feeling I have left to reach out and walk with her holding hands again back to the common room. Or maybe we could go to the mirror room? That’s probably a bad idea after just convincing her that she shouldn’t be going so often.  _ God it’s cold _ . 

Merula murmured something as we slipped inside the castle. I wasn’t sure if it was even at me and had to ask her if she saw someone. “No, I said...sorry.”

Now I was sure I misheard. “You’re sorry?”

“For pushing you in the fountain. I didn’t think about the snow and cold, alright? I’m sorry. I’m not saying it again.”

“I didn’t expect anything the first time. Thank you. I’m sorry too for joking you needed to see Madam Pomfrey.”

We didn’t say much else creeping together down the stairs and across a corridor. Everyone was long back in bed after a final dinner and little parties before classes started again. We managed to avoid detection all the way to the dungeons and strutted into the common room. Merula strutted at least, I was more doing a side-ways shuffle because one of my feet were completely numb and I know I already rolled the ankle twice on accident on the stairs and wanted to mitigate further injury tomorrow when I could feel it again.

My hand pushed the door too hard and a low echo bounced around the common room announcing our return. The common room was empty save for Merula and her glare back at me like I dropped the ball right before the finish line. “I’m sorry for that, too.” I definitely made the mental decision to smile. My lips didn’t really listen and whatever face I made just annoyed Merula further. “Sorry, still really cold and all.” I shook my robe out in her direction and got a good flip at the end to spray her a little.

“Marik! I’ll send you into the fireplace next if you do that again.”

“So sorry, was it cold? I would hate to make you shiver.”

“The cold doesn’t bother me, loser.”

“Yeah?”  _ Why do I always instigate further? _ I place both hands on Merula’s cheeks to challenge her assertion.

“Hey, get these off!” Merula stepped back as I mimicked her moves and kept my hands in place. 

Her face was hot against my hands, probably not as nice from her perspective. “Admit it’s cold.”

Merula swats away a hand. I take the quick second to pat my ice cold robe and press my wet hand back on her face again. Merula lunges forward and tackles me over the back of the couch. Honestly it was a terrible idea since she squashed my robe between us and soaked her own robes along with mine.

I mean, I was already cold so it wasn’t any worse than before for me. I could see Merula’s eyes widen at her clothes and body feeling the cold water and she pushed against the side of the couch to roll off, but I wouldn’t let her. Wrapping my arms around Merula's torso I gave a tight squeeze pinning her arms down and forcing all the water I could out of the robe onto the two of us. “Just admit it.” I laughed.

Something reminded me of us fighting in the forest. I got a strange feeling that we were in a similar situation and things could go either really good or bad for me soon. I kept an eye on Merula’s face, and the other on her legs that were hammering away at my shins, and saw she was struggling to back down. 

I was ready this time. Merula went in for a kiss and she wasn’t going to surprise me this time. I turned my head so she only got my cheek, “You can’t break free with that again.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Merula twisted around trying to dislodge herself.

“Is it what you want?”  Nothing, she doesn't even blink. 

I let go of my grip for a moment and pushed my hands under her arms and around her back giving her a little more wiggle room. Merula just stares at me. I start moving one hand down and pull on the robe dripping between us and flop it on the floor. Merula still hasn’t moved. I bring my arm back and she moves just enough to give me space to wrap around her again. 

Merula’s face is less than three inches from mine. Her little orange patch is dangling right above my eye and it’s brutal not to blink or twitch, but I can’t stop looking at her purple eyes. Merula looks back at me, her eyes going from locking with mine and my lips.

I can tell this is finally the time. I’m reading her right. _God I hope I'm reading her right_. Pressing in with my elbows I bring her forward and give a little pressure down. Our noses brush each other, her head tilted slightly drawing in closer. I can feel her heart racing almost as fast as mine. We’re stuck in a game of chicken too nervous to pull away or dive in. I wasn’t cold anymore. My chest was on fire.

I give. I pick my head off the couch and meet her lips.


	19. Merula and Marik on the couch - short chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little behind this week for "world on fire" reasons. Here's the continuation of Marik finally getting to kiss Merula back.

The second our lips touched Merula pushed her mouth down tighter onto mine. No quick kiss and done. No fake-outs. Not a hit and run. We didn’t move our bodies for a minute. Just one long, singular kiss together.

All the glimpses of something, some hidden emotion or feeling came pouring out of Merula and it hit me like the wave of hot air when you walk outside after a summer rain. I could feel this was what she had been wanting for a while. 

Her lips softly held mine in place. Even as I gave a faint withdrawal to breathe her teeth held onto my bottom lip until I pushed back and kissed her again. 

Internally I was doing backflips. I was making-out with a girl, what’s not to be excited about? And this particular with this witch who has been acting like there wasn’t anything between us.

My hands felt through her hair. Merula always wore a “do not touch” expression and I felt like an explorer landing in the new world. I felt a little weird that my eyes were open most of the time. People always kissed with their eyes closed in movies. But I wanted to see Merula up close. See her kissing me like it could disappear any second and I had to hold onto the memory or else it never happened. 

I definitely wasn’t cold anymore. To the contrary I wanted to get rid of layers, but that’s a bit much. I want to enjoy the moment. I put an elbow into the couch and started pushing up more into the kiss. 

Picking her arms of the cushion Merula gripped my shoulders and slammed me back into the couch. Breaking the connection she rested her cheek against mine and whispered, “Don’t move.” I never wanted to get up again. Why did I want to get up the first time? That was dumb.  _ I see that domination of the situation extends everywhere. One-hundred percent okay with this. _

Merula didn’t kiss back yet, she was staring at me in the flickering light from the fireplace. With her hand Merula traced a finger down my nose and lingered on my lips, parting them and hesitating in thought like she wasn’t sure what to do next.  _ Should I move again? Am I feeling kiss withdrawal? I don’t think that’s a thing. _ I mirrored Merula’s tracing motion with my thumb and held her face in my hand. 

It could have been a few seconds or minutes we stared at each other. I think we both were trying to reconcile the entirety of our combative relationship with this overflow of contact and emotion. “Want to kiss again?”  _ I didn’t mean to speak. Betrayal body! _

That freaking smirk. The one where she gets her way. When she wins a race or makes the best potion. I didn’t hate it this time. Merula and I kissed and I really failed at staying still. I pressed her body into mine. I turned her sideways and wedged a cushion out of place and onto the floor twisting our bodies together. I don’t know when the second cushion fell off but I’m glad it did since it caught us when we fell over the side.  _ That’s what I get for trying to get on top with this one. _

It was really funny tipping over. I laughed. A lot. It broke the sexiness of the mood but it was hilarious. We messed up the couch and managed to get everything damp from my clothes. I let go and stood up first. The clock showed it was past 3am. It definitely wasn’t that long after midnight when we came back. Maybe 1am. I didn’t even think about the dangers of offering Merula a hand up under normal circumstances, but she didn’t scoff or smack it away. I pulled her straight up and pulled my hand behind me to get her close again. We kissed again. Like this was a normal thing now.  _ Is anything normal with Merula? _

Merula ended the kiss this time and stepped off her cushion island. She fixed her hair back to its usual style and felt over her robes, looking back and forth at my own and hers. I reached out and her robes were as wet as mine. Merula took my hand off her robe and held it for a second, a couple seconds. A minute. Didn’t say a word. “Goodnight.” 

_ Goodnight!? That’s all she says? _ “Do, do you want to talk about anything first?” I motioned at the deconstructed couch with cushions and pillows spread around us. “Not going to talk about that?”

“We’ll talk next time.”

Well that shut me up. It also reignited my desire to tackle her and trash another couch. This was good though. She’s thinking about a next time. Don’t blow it now. “I can do that. Yes, sounds good.”  _ Please god stop talking. _ “See you next time.”  _ Why would you say that? Please stop. _

Merula rolled her eyes. Not the normal one this time. There was a smile with it. She was so much cuter when she wasn’t trying to kill me. Those may not be the best standards on what to aspire to, but why am I arguing with myself about this? “Goodnight.” 

My hand sprang out to catch the moment and extend it just a bit longer. I locked my fingers between hers and pulled her back for one more kiss. A quick one with an embarrassingly loud smack at the end. One of those hit-and-run kisses she had given me in the past. “Goodnight.” 

Merula disappeared into the girls dormitory leaving me still in the middle of the common room. I stepped off my own little cushion and directly onto my robe. I rolled up my robe and wrung it out a few times. After fixing up the couches and moving the one we were on two feet back into place I strutted like a king back to my room.

Life was good right now. I was getting a guide to the cursed vault, I found another hideout of Jacob’s, and I think it’s safe to say Merula doesn’t completely hate me.

“Hey Marik,” Rowan said softly from his bed next to mine as soon as I sat down. “I saw you. Both of you.”


End file.
